Blue Caprice movie review & film summary (2013)

That's a worthy goal, but it's pursued in a frustratingly vague way. The movie puts attractively silhouetted and partially-focused shots, jump-cuts, moody synthesizer music, long closeups of poker faces, and other artfilm signifiers where specific information might otherwise go. It's fine to mostly avoid the racial aspects of the case as well as some of its odder particulars, such as the question of whether the duo had terrorist sympathies, or actual terrorist ties, or if they were just draping themselves in Al Qaeda-style ideology because it was in the air at the time. 

But I do think that when you base a story on life while removing or altering a lot of key details, you should fill the voids with images and ideas that are just as fascinating. "Blue Caprice" doesn't do that. Granted, it's fiction, so it's under no obligation to educate or enlighten us, but we should at least get a sense that it understands the people and story it's transforming into fiction, and that it has something to say. There are times where it's hard to say if the film is erring on the side of subtlety or just playing it artfilm-cool, so that you can't accuse it of failing to do things that it is, in fact, trying to do, and failing. 

The end product is a psychological thriller that's light on thrills and psychology. Two gifted lead actors—plus a charismatic supporting cast, including Tim Blake Nelson as a gun nut who arms the duo, and Joey Lauren Adams as his flaky wife—are asked to do a lot of heavy lifting that the film itself avoids, and do it in such a way that it doesn't play like heavy lifting. They rise to the occasion, but I'm not sure they should have had to.

Washington is frequently dazzling as Muhammad. He gives the man a warrior's coiled energy and falcon's stare (even though Muhammad was in the Army's motor pool and was never in combat), and anchors his "Matrix" fantasies and political rants to a core of recognizable outrage. His characterization has a clear thesis that "Blue Caprice" lacks: Muhammad is a hot-tempered man who hates women and can't get along with one woman in particular, his wife, which in turn means that the only thing that gives his life pleasure, his children, will remain forever beyond his reach. The obscurities that swirl around the man are supposed to add resonance and mystery—maybe?—but they don't have  the impact of this one clean, simple idea.