The Kingdom.

I'm not going to get a full review written for The Kingdom, so these condensed thoughts will have to suffice. (Insert joke about time, marriage, etc.)

As the season has shifted from summer to fall, so too shifts the tone of cinema, from a noisy, adrenaline-infused summer to a dramatic, Oscar-contending autumn. Bridging that gap skillfully is a contemporary action-drama set in the divergent cultures of Washington, D.C. and Saudi Arabia, the latter of which is known by natives as The Kingdom. A team of FBI agents are thrust into this foreign world when something goes horribly wrong, and the movie tells that story with a facility that nearly minimizes the film's quality.

What Kingdom does extremely well is create a realistic world with well-rounded characters. The movie reveals strengths and flaws of the good guys and the bad guys, whether they're American or Arabian. It also offers a (to my knowledge) solid representation of the Arab world and presents their point of view in a fair and reasonable manner. Aided by docu-style cameras and a sandy color palette, Kingdom adds multiple moments of white-knuckle tension, with and without action, that rival anything put on screen in recent years. The lead actors are all solid and likable, and threads of humor and casual music run through the film, preventing it from becoming overbearing as it promotes pensiveness. This is one of the best action-dramas of this decade.

Bottom Line: Assuredly among the year's best films. 8 of 10.