A hero for our times, flawed but charismatic like James Bond and Bobby Kennedy.
Sergio
Grade: B
Director: Greg Barker (The Final Year)
Screenplay: Craig Borten (Dallas Buyer’s Club), based on Samantha Powers’ Chasing the Flame: One Man’s Fight to Save the World
Cast: Wagner Moura (Elite Squad), Ana de Armas (Knives Out)
Rating: R
Runtime: 1h 58m
By: John DeSando
“One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.” George W. Bush
Sergio is a Netflix docudrama for our times about a man who dedicates his life to spark the peaceful future of Iraq. A diplomat who sacrifices for a greater cause is a rarity anytime, even in our pandemic times. “Sergio” Vieira de Mello (Wagner Moura) came to Iraq as the UN high commissioner for human rights, who was successful in obtaining impossible diplomatic successes in Cambodia, East Timor, and Indonesia.
That Sergio was known as a cross between James Bond and Bobby Kennedy gives an idea of his charisma and dedication made for the big or little screen. Although he is flawed, and the film shows this, his weaknesses further solidify him as an exceptional and very human man.
More than half this docudrama is fully engrossing as it fleshes out players from the Bush administrator in Baghdad, Paul Bremer (Bradley Whitford), to the general of the revolutionary army, Xanana Gusmao (Pedro Hossi). Sergio’s sometimes miraculous feats were as much due to his uncanny diplomatic skills as to his admirable humanity. When the story focuses on tense negotiations and his growing understanding of the Iraqi people, it crackles with excitement and insight.
However, when too much of the story centers on his romance with Carolina (Ana de Armas), who also works for the UN and for the people, the film loses itself in clichés and sentimentality worthy of the international thriller formula. That he is married with two children is never hidden because of too many family flashbacks as well as romantic beaches with Carolina; they crowd the picture to the detriment of the fine deconstruction of the Iraq mess. Even the requisite lovemaking scene is glossy and gratuitous, hardly important given the horrors enfolding outside the room. He’s handsome, she’s beautiful—they are attracted to each other—that’s as much as we need to know. We need more about the bungling of the US and neutering of the UN.
If you’re still quarantined, this Netflix film is a worthy companion as an intriguing true story about a political public servant who actually has high standards. Imagine that.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JohnDeSando62@gmail.com.
