BatFlattery

Just finished watching The Kingdom. Immediate thoughts:

1. I’m very glad I didn’t see it before my trip to Saudi Arabia in January. The compound that gets blown up looks very similar to the compound I visited, even though the scene was shot in Arizona.
2. Then again, there really is a compound called Arizona in Riyadh!
3. The security that you see at the entrance to the compound is absolutely for real. When you drive into a compound, they really do check under the car with a mirror. Every time. You really do have to drive the meander between huge concrete blocks, and there really are national guardsmen in tanks parked outside. All the time.
4. In many of the city shots it was very obviously not Riyadh. I haven’t been to Abu Dhabi but in photographs I’ve seen, it contains far more huge glass buildings than there are in Riyadh, which really has only two tall buildings, the Kingdom Centre and the Faisaliyah, and neither is a glass box.
5. Although none of the film was actually shot in Riyadh, in some shots you can see, on the horizon, the distinctive shape of the Kingdom Centre (which contains the Four Seasons hotel that I stayed at). I presume it was digitally added in post-production.

I was quite impressed by the movie: it felt authentic for the most part, and the writing avoided stereotypes and cliches. The plot was surprising and reached a satisfying climax, and all of the performances were solid; only Ashraf Barhoum really stood out. Recommended.