Film Preview: The Mauritanian (2021)

Film Poster

Page Revisions:

(December 6, 2020) Original
(February 28, 2021) New Trailer (#2) — New Poster (#2) — New Release Date (changed from 2/19/21)

Release Date:

February 12, 2021

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “A detainee at the U.S military’s Guantanamo Bay detention center is held without charges for over a decade and seeks help from a defense attorney for his release.”

Poster Rating: B / C

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Review: (#1) The bloody banner idea has been done before and is largely done poorly here. It’s still an interesting attempt even if not entirely successful.

(#2) The upper design elements are clunky and poorly balanced while the bottom details lack intrigue. Throw in the lack of background in the center of the design and it makes for a rather dull effort.

Trailer Rating: B- / B

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Review: (#1) The trailer is overly long, which may not enamor potential audiences, but it gets to its point rather well and looks like a film that has a lot of potential to speak truth to power, but also a lot of potential to be an abject failure. The February release date is either shrewd or unintentional.

(#2) While this gets at the heart of the film better than the prior preview, the film still struggles to make itself palatable to a broader swath of Americans. Sure, having characters question their convictions is a nice touch for a film, but the people who need to see the film will have already made up their minds and won’t give the film a chance.

Oscar Prospects:

Jodie Foster has been long absent from the Oscars and this could be her road back even though it looks like a lot of other films about redacted cases of terrorism.