Argo is a great movie. Why is it great? It’s got a very compelling story, and really interesting characters to support it. The Red Sea Diving Resort is Argo lite. It’s got that same compelling story that Argo possesses, but none of the characters or execution of Ben Affleck’s Oscar winning film. I guess Batfleck has the upper hand on America’s ass when it comes to government operatives using businesses as fronts for hostage removal.
The hostages in this case are Ethiopian Jews in the 1980s. They are being escorted to freedom by Kabede Bimro (Michael K. Williams), who is being assisted by Israeli operatives led by Ari Levinson (Chris Evans). With the ever tricky political situation, Levinson proposes reopening the Red Sea Diving Resort in Sudan to help the Jewish refugees escape by boat. With monetary and aid assistance from the Israeli government (spokesperson: Ben Kingsley), Levinson recruits fellow operatives (Haley Bennett, Michiel Huisman) and his best friend Sammy (Alessandro Nivola) to run the hotel, and help extract as many Jews as possible before local crime lord Colonel Abdel Ahmed (Chris Chalk) starts to put the pieces together.
Now that’s an important, heroic story right? Thankfully, The Red Sea Diving Resort does the bare minimum to make the efforts of all the heroes here worthwhile for viewing. There are moments of real tension, like a midnight road check, or a surprise militia visit, or an unexpected shady jailing. In a story like this, while some internal struggle or moral complexity would shade the characters more, the goal of this movie is for those people to look heroic, and The Red Sea Diving Resort does that. The movie doesn’t do it often enough, but when we go into the details of specific extractions, The Red Sea Diving Resort fulfills its Netflix purpose of drawing your eye long enough until the next “heist” when you can fold laundry, make out, or whatever.
It’s also clear that The Red Sea Diving Resort could have been something special. There’s no shortage of interesting characters in there somewhere to build the story off of. Kabede Bimro’s story alone is probably worth its own film, risking his life for so many of these refugees while evading capture for months/years…and yet, he’s barely in the movie. How about the white Western woman in a Muslim country adopting more conservative cultural movements? Haley Bennett gets some heroic moments, but she’s shunted to the side. How about the locals who work for the Jewish government at the hotel? Think they have stories to tell? They get one scene. The only character development the movie is remotely interested in is the “conflict” between Chris Evans and Alessandro Nivola. One’s brash! One’s calculated! Argue! A smart screenplay would have pushed a Kirk/Spock relationship into the movie, having them learn and grow from one another. Instead, we get lip service words, with no actions to back them up from either character. I would also want to make all these people look like heroes, but one bad trait or two would have elevated The Red Sea Diving Resort out of the cruel “forgettable” designation.
There’s no doubt The Red Sea Diving resort boasts a great story. Unfortunately, it’s also clear the writers and director coasted on that fact. However, when I picture a few of those persecuted refugees possibly watching this story comfortably from a safe place on Netflix, watching this story bring joy and happiness to the viewers? I get over the movie’s problems and just learn to be happy and enjoy the film for what it is.