Operation Tehran — The Loot Hidden in the Wall

Operation Tehran: full review

Some films mistake length for ambition, and Operation Tehran (The Fix) is a textbook case. Guy Moshe, who made his name with the stylized extravagance of Bunraku (2010), writes with Mark Bacci and directs a thriller about ex-CIA operatives that was called Hotel Tehran during production and reaches theaters at 142 minutes, with a marquee cast and the feeling that three films are fighting over the same running time.

The premise is, on paper, juicy. Tucker (Zachary Levi), an operative disillusioned by the end of the war in Afghanistan, reunites with his former mentor Larry (Liam Neeson), whose cognitive decline makes him blurt out secrets he should have taken to the grave. One of them is worth a fortune: during the 1981 embassy crisis, Larry helped hide 25 million dollars inside the wall of a Tehran hotel. Tucker assembles his old team for an unauthorized mission, and what begins as a heist turns, once in Iran, into a moral dilemma: keep the money or risk their lives to rescue a group of Iranian women persecuted by the regime.

Direction and mise-en-scène: polished, but directionless

Credit where it’s due: the film is well made. Larry Smith’s cinematography — a veteran with Eyes Wide Shut and Only God Forgives on his résumé — gives the night sequences a luxurious finish that disguises the fact that Tehran was recreated in Mississippi, and the shootouts, while not memorable, have the punch an R-rated film demands. Federico Bisozzi and Davide Tomat’s score does its job of underlining the tension.

The problem is direction. The journey from Kabul to Tehran gets tangled in layer after layer: the heist inside the rescue, the rescue inside the heist, a budding romance, a telegraphed betrayal and a backstory explained in fits and starts. None of these threads gets enough time to matter, and at the same time the film stretches out in dead passages that could lose twenty or thirty minutes. It’s the rare film that moves too fast and too slow at once.

Performances: Neeson, the most interesting part

The best thing about Operation Tehran is, paradoxically, the character with the least action. Liam Neeson, far from the invincible avenger of his recent hits, plays a man whose memory is crumbling, and in the scenes where Larry mixes up eras and says more than he should there is a genuine sadness the film doesn’t know how to use. It’s a twilight Neeson, and far more interesting than the one in his latest action vehicles.

Zachary Levi has a harder time. His Tucker is a textbook tormented hero, and Levi, more comfortable with irony than drama, never quite finds the wound. The team — Wes Chatham, Grant Harvey, Augusto Aguilera, Annet Mahendru — simply gets by, because the script gives them no time to be anything more than a tactical specialty with a name. Elnaaz Norouzi, as Zara, and Navid Negahban, as a Revolutionary Guard officer, bring the Iranian presence the film needs, although their characters serve the scheme more than the story.

Script: redemption as an excuse

The central turn — from loot to rescue — should be the film’s moral heart, the moment disillusioned mercenaries choose to be better people. But the script treats it like leveling up in a video game: it arrives, it’s announced, it’s executed, and the dilemma never really weighs. Its view of Iran also stays within the broad strokes of the American action thriller, with a regime of interchangeable villains and victims who mainly exist so the protagonists can redeem themselves.

The best

• Liam Neeson: A fragile, twilight Larry, the most human thing in the film.
• Larry Smith’s cinematography: Gives the whole a finish well above its budget.
• The premise: A mentor with dementia revealing a forgotten fortune was a starting point with a lot of juice.

The worst

• The running time: 142 minutes for a story that needed 110.
• Too many layers: Heist, rescue, romance and betrayal, with no time for any of them to matter.
• A perfunctory moral dilemma: The shift from loot to rescue carries no weight.
• An action-postcard Iran: Interchangeable villains and victims serving the heroes’ redemption.

The Claqueta Ácida Verdict (3.8/10)

Operation Tehran had a good story hidden in the wall, like Larry’s money, but Guy Moshe buries it under layers of subplots and minutes of filler. What’s left is a polished thriller, with an unexpectedly moving Liam Neeson, that gets lost somewhere between Kabul and Tehran without deciding what it wants to be. The loot exists; what’s missing is someone who knows where the map is. 💀

Operation Tehran: frequently asked questions

What is the rating of "Operation Tehran" on Claqueta Ácida?

"Operation Tehran" scored 3.8/10 on Claqueta Ácida in the review by Valeria Von Doom.

Is "Operation Tehran" worth watching?

No. We gave it 3.8/10 (Sulfuric Acid), our rating for films we don't recommend.

Who directed "Operation Tehran"?

"Operation Tehran" was directed by Guy Moshe.

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Theater Collateral Damage Report

Psychophysical impact certificate issued by Valeria Von Doom

💀 Severe Auditory & Mental Trauma

🥱 Yawn-o-meter

5

⏱️ Panic Clock Checks

Se miró el reloj tantas veces que el cristal pidió una tregua.

😬 Cringe Index 8.0/10

How much second-hand embarrassment the film causes (10 = maximum). It is not the review score.

☕ Caffeine Prescription

Doble espresso antes de cada acto. La película no merece que llegues descansado.

💥 Derailment Point

"El paso del golpe al rescate, anunciado y ejecutado como un cambio de nivel en un videojuego, sin que el dilema moral llegue a pesar"

⚔️ Editorial Duel: Second Opinion Dante Sangre's score: 5.5/10

Another critic from the newsroom scores the same film. The main score is still the one at the top of the review.

The rebuttal from Dante Sangre (Blockbuster Scalpel)

In stark disagreement with the review given by Valeria Von Doom.

“

El guion cabe en la servilleta de un bar grasiento, y aun así sobraba espacio. Pero Moshe tiene instinto para la imagen cuando se lo permite. Veinticinco minutos de película buena enterrados en dos horas de pasta industrial.

”