A group of Irish UN Peacekeepers, led by Comdt. Pat Quinlan (Jamie Dornan), are sent to the Katanga Province of Congo and become involved in a bloody battle with Belgian and French mercenaries for control of a small town.
The story of Jadotville and the six-day battle that took place between members of the Irish Defence Forces and French mercenaries is one of the darkest in recent Irish history and one that's been ripe for adaptation for many, many years. The cliff notes on the subject even reads like a high-stakes military thriller - a group of untested Irish soldiers, under the auspices of the United Nations, are sent to Katanga, a mineral-rich province in Congo that is looking to secede and form an independent country. Those same minerals are vitally important for the Arms Race between the United States and the Soviet Union, and so, Katanga is now a location of huge strategic importance.
All this is covered in the opening credits of the film and really does let you know that we're essentially watching a very Hollywood-ised version of events, complete with diabolical Irish accents and everything. From the very opening scene, it's clear that The Siege of Jadotville is reaching rather than hitting. We see veteran British actor Mark Strong striding through the halls of the United Nations - which looks like a carpark floor - with a distractingly bad Irish accent, who talks about Ireland's neutrality and how it gives them an advantage to act as UN Peacekeepers. Smash cut to Jamie Dornan in a stereotypical Irish pub, surrounded by vaguely familiar Irish actors, working the sort of accent you'd expect to hear from someone like Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts. Before long, we're introduced to Jason O'Mara, Dornan's right-hand man and the only one who seems to understand that the film is basically a straight-up action film. By the time the troops make it to Congo, we meet the film's protagonist - Guillaume Canet - whose accent and demeanour is so outrageously French that he may as well be taunting the audience behind castle battlements.
It's easy to see what screenwriter Kevin Brodbin and director Richie Smyth were aiming for with Siege of Jadotville - a big, splashy, commercially-aimed military action thriller that'll appeal to a broad audience. Instead, what we get is a completely hamfisted attempt with some wooden, clunky dialogue with flat, unappealing direction for half of the film. While the film's battle sequences - which make up most of second and third act - are quite well staged and shot, it's the lead-up to them and the lulls in between that are so poorly made that pulls it all down.
It's not just Jamie Dornan's cringe-inducing accent that's off-putting, it's the truly woeful dialogue he's forced to contend with. Another scene, involving the troopers, sees them talking about a girl that would make the skin crawl of any Irish audience. When he's given the right script, Jamie Dornan can act and there are some effective moments with him, but they're few and far between. Jason O'Mara, meanwhile, allows his physical presence to make up for the lack of conviction in the dialogue whilst Mark Strong and Michael McElhatton are reduced to spouting exposition. Oh, and Mark Strong keeps his Irish accent for half the film and then drops it towards the end. Why even bother at all?
As mentioned, the story of Jadotville is a fascinating one and the way in which the soldiers were treated by the Irish Government following the events depicted was utterly disgraceful. Yet, for whatever reason, the film decides to briefly touch upon this and leaves it as an epilogue in the film. The whole story itself deserves better than this and, with a more experienced director, a more engaging screenplay and better casting, it could have been something really special.
Instead, The Siege of Jadotville is an unremarkable film about a truly remarkable group of men.