A House of Dynamite Review: Strong Ensemble, Weak Character Depth

A Familiar Ensemble Approach

Much like Detroit, A House of Dynamite unfolds as an ensemble drama, where the audience watches a range of character actors play out a hypothetical crisis with a humanistic edge. Many of these performers successfully embody their caricatured roles despite the dense bureaucratic jargon that fills the dialogue. This language adds to the immersive, realistic tone and amplifies the underlying sense of dread.

A Script That Undermines Its Own Characters

However, Noah Oppenheim’s screenplay ends up doing these performances a disservice. His writing is so focused on capturing bureaucratic precision and procedural chaos that when the story calls for genuine emotion or humanity, it completely falls apart. Instead of meaningful drama, we get melodramatic “after-school special” moments that deflate any real tension.

By the third chapter, the story shifts toward Idris Elba’s incompetent POTUS and Jared Harris’s Secretary of Defense, whose helplessness becomes almost comedic. With no way to stop the incoming missile, both men resort to calling their families — intercut with awkward cameos from random characters like Kaitlyn Dever as the Secretary’s estranged daughter and Renée Elise Goldsberry as the First Lady, inexplicably on safari.

Thin Writing, One Standout Character

Nearly every character in A House of Dynamite feels underwritten and hollow, serving more as a vessel for the film’s concept than as a believable person. The sole exception is Gabriel Basso as Deputy National Security Advisor Jake Baerington. He’s refreshingly real — a young professional running late to work, juggling a Zoom meeting on the go while older officials sit composed at their desks.

This moment of relatability injects humor and human tension into the film, standing out as both the funniest and most anxiety-inducing scene. Unfortunately, moments like this are rare, leaving A House of Dynamite full of big ideas but short on authentic character depth.