Britt Marling (in blindfold) in “The East”
“THE EAST” My rating: B (Opens June 14 at the Tivoli)
116 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13
Perhaps Brit Marling is a visitor from another planet sent to Earth to remind us of just how much fun a smart movie can be.
So far this blond girl-next-door type has co-written and starred in “Another Earth” (a sci-fi relationship movie) and “The Sound of My Voice” (about a cult leader who claims to come from the future). She played Richard Gere’s daughter in the fine Wall Street meltdown drama “Arbitrage.”
Now Marling and her usual collaborator, director Zal Batmanglij, give us the topical thriller “The East.” As you’d expect from these two, it’s a very thoughtful but emotionally gripping yarn – this time about eco-terrorism.
Sarah (Marling) is a former FBI agent now in the employ of a huge security firm representing big-time corporate clients. Recently American mega-corporations have been under attack by a shadowy group of eco-warriors known as The East. Sarah’s boss (Patricia Clarkson) sends her undercover to locate and infiltrate the organization.
The assignment requires Sarah to do more than merely change her hair color and wardrobe and say farewell to her boyfriend (Jason Ritter), who thinks she has a job abroad. She has to put herself in the shoes of a disaffected and outraged tree hugger. And along the way she begins to experience the sense of persecution and futility of that mindset.
Eventually she does find herself admitted as a provisional member of The East. The group’s leader – to the extent that it has one – is Benji (“True Blood’s” Alexander Skarrsgard), a trust-fund kid using his fortune to wage a war on behalf of Mother Earth. Other members include the suspicious Izzy (Ellen Page), the scholarly Doc (Toby Kebbell), and the gender-bending Luca (Shiloh Fernandez).
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