Enemy Lines – A Bland War Film That Does Just Enough

Enemy Lines begins from a place of interest – a group of soldiers are sent on a mission to retrieve a German scientist from behind occupied Poland in the middle of WWII but quickly falls into the familiar and uninspiring. In the end, the film becomes the answer to the question we all should be asking each other, “What if there was a Hallmark History Channel?”

Enemy Lines follows a task force of British and American soldiers led by Major Kaminski (Westwick) into German-occupied Poland in order to retrieve a closely guarded scientist named Dr. Fabian (Delag), whose value lies with the emerging Manhattan Project that will hopefully bring an end to the War. However, the script severely limits the potential of various personalities developing within the group as there is very little time spent on these characters that are sent on this mission. This is most notably seen with Major Kaminski, a soldier of Polish descent who somehow sees very little to no character development as he attempts to navigate a rescue resulting in a conflict that saw him fighting alongside people from his native land. For the most part, this assessment extends to almost all characters within the story with the exception of Dr. Fabien and his daughter who provide the only emotional investment of the entire movie.

At the end of the day, despite its deficiencies, Enemy Lines is still a passable watch. While this statement may or may not inspire readers to seek out this film, it still manages to deliver a decent story that manages to offer just enough to get by. Meanwhile, the cast is never stretched with the material they are given but Westwick, Delag, and most notably, John Hannah as Colonel Preston all provide enough from their performances to keep viewers invested until the end of what was a relatively short film, clocking in with a running time of 90 minutes.

Overall, Enemy Lines tells a story that has been told many times before and because of this familiarity and the subsequent over-saturation of WWII-era stories, especially the subgenre centered around soldiers on sent on seemingly impossible rescue missions, the film comes very close to completely collapsing. However, several good moments and performances throughout the film that help to keep the viewer’s attention are unfortunately overshadowed by a plethora of derivative war-time beats including stereotypes and banter that truly limit the film’s potential to rise above and be more than merely the sum of its parts.

*still courtesy of levelFilm*

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