‘This country is at war with itself…’
Jean Seberg may be relatively unknown in the wider world, but she has been immortalised in celluloid forever following her game changing performance in Jean-Luc Godard’s masterpiece Breathless. While Seberg’s tragic demise is well known, Benedict Andrews’ biopic attempts to shine a light on the CIAs role in her downfall…
Jean Seberg (Kristen Stewart) is an up-and-coming actress who becomes involved in the civil rights movement through her affair with activist Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie) which leads to both Seberg and Jamal being tailed by the CIA. Special Agent Jack Solomon (Jack O’ Connell) struggles with the moral implications of the agency for which he has devoted his life. Elsewhere, unscrupulous CIA agents Frank Ellroy (Colm Meaney) and Carl Kowalski (Vince Vaughn) attempt to keep the operation on track.
A formidable cast then, and a successful theatre director behind the camera in the shape of Benedict Andrews, but Seberg never quite soars as it should. Stewart, fast becoming one of the most accomplished actors in the world, is fantastic again, capturing the torment and paranoia of a targeted woman with compassion and authenticity. Unfortunately, rather than focusing on his subject, Andrews spends far too much time with fictional CIA agent Jack Solomon. Inventing characters to act as a cipher is a necessary evil in a Hollywood biopic, but what should be a minor subplot ends up taking up far too much screen time, to the extent that Seberg’s story occasionally feels marginalised.
Seberg is certainly worth watching for those with an interest in Seberg as a person, but cinephiles will be disappointed with the lack of depth and real analysis of an American actress who somehow became an unlikely icon of French cinema.