‘The Engineer’ Review: Emile Hirsch Is an Unlikely Israeli Intelligence Tough Guy in a Dull Suicide Bomber Drama
variety.comDennis Harvey Film Critic Though raised in Brooklyn, actor turned producer/director Danny A. Abeckaser was born in Israel. Unfortunately, that birthright isn’t enough to lend authenticity to “The Engineer,” which feels very much like an American B-movie stab at turning Israeli anti-terrorist operations of 30 years ago into formulaic action fodder — without much action, even.
A miscast Emile Hirsch plays a Shin Bet agent tasked with hunting down the mastermind behind a series of suicide bombings. Arriving at yet another low ebb in Israeli international relations over Palestinian issues, this frequently unconvincing and clunky would-be thriller will have a hard time stirring much enthusiasm in most territories.
Lionsgate is releasing to limited U.S. theaters and home formats on August 18. It begins, with a burst of explanatory onscreen text, in the fall of 1993, as Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat were in Washington D.C.
attempting to broker peace under the auspices of President Clinton. (A tip to the movie’s own muffled political leanings arrives when a character sees that POTUS on TV and mutters, “I don’t trust this guy.”) Their efforts are not helped by an ongoing rash of suicide bombings thought to be orchestrated by one Yahya Ayyash, aka “The Engineer,” a Hamas operative in hiding.
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