RRobert Downey Jr. really does give a Robert Downey Jr.-esque performance in The Sympathizer. He runs around in all sorts of makeup effects, exuding a freakishly intense, aggressive charm. Maybe it was because of his Robert Downey Jr.-esqueness that it took me about halfway through the second episode to realize that he wasn’t playing the same person in disguise, but several different characters, and that The Sympathizer is exactly that kind of drama. Still, given that the film is an adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and is directed by Park Chan-wook (Old Boy, The Handmaiden), it would have been foolish to go in expecting to be presented with an intelligent tale of identity and imperialism in easily digestible chunks.
Naturally, the film makes things difficult for the viewer, requiring you to follow the film’s twists and turns of story and theme, which are often thrilling but sometimes a little exhausting. The timeline jumps around a lot, but it begins about four days before and four months after the fall of Saigon. The anonymous Captain (Hoa Xuan De), half French, half Vietnamese, is a police chief and loyal enforcer for a South Vietnamese general (Toan Le), and is mentored by CIA agent Claude (Downey Jr., in yet another of his many roles), who is also… AlsoHe is a spy from the Communist North who has infiltrated deeply into the regime he opposes.
That all does not go as planned is later shown when the Captain is captured and imprisoned by his own side – not the false side, but the real side, but the boundary between them is becoming increasingly blurred. Imprisoned, the Captain is repeatedly ordered to report everything that has happened to him. As he writes it down again and again, details, memories and decisions are shaped, reinforced and reworked. The draft is rejected as having a Hollywood ending. What story should he tell?
Unreliable narrators are introduced sparingly, and are sprinkled throughout the series with rather flashy effects. Early on, a scene rewinds and plays back with Downey Jr. reciting the same lines but in slightly different tones. Memory is unreliable, so you can’t completely trust what you’re seeing. The film is full of stylistic quirks and the flair of a director known for his visual flair. Images repeat and bookmark your memory. A bespectacled man’s head turns into an egg, foreshadowing a gruesome death. Scenes cut abruptly and abruptly between locations and times. You might not want to know what happens to the squid until you’re there to hear it all.
The story begins in Vietnam, depicting the dual nature of a Captain tracking and interrogating a cooperating spy before the fall of Saigon. After a covert escape in which the CIA orchestrates the general’s escape out of the country, the story moves to Los Angeles, jumping around in time and place. Old-fashioned espionage techniques provide plenty of old-fashioned fun – there’s a small camera, invisible ink made from household items, and secret codes to send messages back home. The war elements, particularly a terrifying escape from an airfield near Saigon, are packed with wit and humour.
In America, the Captain returns to his university as a graduate student from a decade ago, where he meets and engages in a steamy affair with Sophia, played by Sandra Oh, who rivals Downey Jr. in megastar charisma. The film veers into the world of postcolonial theory and academia, touches on Apocalypse Now-esque Hollywood blockbusters, and overall feels like a big, ambitious piece of storytelling that balances tonal shifts well: it’s darkly humorous, somberly serious, violent, emotional, and even silly. It asks big questions and leaves you uncomfortably confused without immediately providing answers.
The only downside to all this is that, at times, it feels like the film has spent all its emotional budget on style and none on substance. That’s not a bad thing in itself: it looks great, is well acted, and is incredibly ambitious. But sometimes, for example, it has to explain what’s going on in a poetic voiceover, rather than letting it unfold seamlessly. This is also the case with Robert Downey Jr.’s conception, which I found distracting, even though he plays the role well. But for the most part, The Sympathizer is exciting, satisfying, and a reminder that dramas that demand your full attention are worth the effort.
