Over the years there have been so many moments that captured the world’s attention leading to some truly outrageous stories. The latest being brought to the big screen comes in the film 7 Days in Entebbe starring Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl, Eddie Marsan, Ben Schnetzer, Lior Ashkenazi, and Denis Ménochet with Narcos director José Padilha at the helm, but does it capture the intensity and danger of this situation or will it be grounded?

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7 Days in Entebbe follows the summer of 1976 when an Air France jet traveling from Tel Aviv to Paris is taken over in midair by four hijackers; two Palestinians and two left-wing German radicals. When the plane is diverted to an abandoned terminal at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, the terrified passengers become bargaining chips in a deadly political standoff. As the likelihood of finding a diplomatic solution fades, the Israeli government sets in motion an extraordinary plan to free the prisoners before time runs out. I love true story films dealing with major events in history so going in I was pretty stoked to see this film and outside of a few articles I tried to keep it a mystery so I could experience it fresh. I must say while I enjoyed the film it didn’t quite offer up the intensity I expected.

 

I think with a film like this dealing with a hijacking you kind of expect more action and suspense and while this has its moments it plays more up to the realism and in this case was not overly exciting outside of the struggles both sides involved obviously felt. The structure to the film is done well to balance the varying sides of everyone involved in this story. There is a lot to digest here and while it isn’t intense it is interesting to see how it all played out. The performances are great across the board with everyone offering up some interesting takes on the characters. None of them were really as I had expected which made for a more interesting direction to this film.

 

What did throw me off was the use of a performance art style dance performance that is part of the bigger story, but also used in the finale in conjunction to the rescue mission. While it is an interesting artistic approach and does work, for me it took away from the full effect to the rescue sequence and never let you fully get invested. Don’t get me wrong it was a beautiful sequence and does showcase a bold choice, but it just felt a bit off and didn’t fully work for me. This was really the only issue for me with the film as a whole so if you decide to check this film out just keep an open mind and let it affect you in its own way.