The reviews are in Operation Finale, and although the film overall has received mixed reviews , Joe’s performance as Klaus Eichmann has been praised by critics for it’s authenticity and believability. David Ehrlich from Indiewire said that Joe, “is frighteningly believable in the role.” Charles Bramesco from The Guardian said Joe is, “unsettlingly well-cast.” Liel Leibovitz from Tablet Magazine called Joe’s performance a, “referendum on compassion” and that, “the monster’s child, he reminds us, had done no wrong, and the pain he feels at the disappearance of his father is real and ought to rankle. This uneasy realization colors each pulse-quickening near miss a few shades darker, and raises far sharper questions about the intersection of justice and revenge than that other recent tale of Mossad agents out on the hunt…”
Overall, critics have praised the performances of the cast, especially by Sir Ben Kinglsey as Adolf Eichmann and Oscar Isaac and Peter Malkin. Although many critics found the way the film challenges the audiences understanding of humanity and morality to be a strength of the film, others felt the film over dramatized aspects of the story.
Many critics have also commented on Operation Finale’s entertainment value, particularly the sequence involving the capture and extraction of Adolf Eichmann from Argentina. Chris Nashawaty from Entertainment Weekly said, “it unspools in predictably unpredictable spy-movie fashion. Everything that can go wrong does; each escape is narrower and hairier than the one that preceded it. But it’s the psychological duel between the terrific Isaac and Kingsley as captor and prisoner that delivers the film’s most charged jolts of electricity.”
We’ve put together a list of several full reviews on the film, check out:
Operation Finale opens in US theatres today.