declaim

He gradually awakens to the need to fight Saruman, declaiming phrases of weary resolution like “Let them come” and “So it begins.”

As interviewees chatter and declaim, Macdonald regularly cuts to runway imagery, which is certainly more enjoyable than enduring Galliano’s prejudices.

Yet, as Izzard darts around the stage, from role to role, hopscotching in and out of the audience declaiming speeches, what becomes clear is this frenetic staging is earnest, surprisingly traditional and deadly serious.

Filled with men and women with furrowed brows, running and declaiming and sometimes explosively blowing their tops, the movie yearns to be a 1970s-style American thriller but is basically just a vehicle for Huppert’s talents.

“Oh Allah make it easy for them to reach there, and bless us with the death of a martyr,” he declaimed, his voice reverberating through the mosque’s loudspeakers.