Film Review: The Report
The Report is about the creation and publication of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of the CIA’s use of torture. The film is two hours long. The actual document is 6700 pages. It’s one of the few pieces of writing where you are unarguably better off watching the movie adaptation. The movie displays the facts of the investigation so thoroughly it has little time for any panache.
To an extent, this isn’t the film’s fault. Unlike the Watergate scandal, the investigation isn’t a well-known fact of American life. The base knowledge viewers have coming into All the President’s Men isn’t there for The Report. Director and writer Scott Z. Burns tries his damnedest to keep things genuinely interesting; the film employs flashbacks through most of the run time to show the events lead investigator Dan Jones (Adam Driver) uncovers. On-screen graphics and lighting changes keep the periods straight. The “present” is shown in harsh and flat light, while the past has a darker and grimier feel.
That said, the film is so obsessed with getting the facts “right” that it lacks much character development or tension. The first hour is leisurely by political thriller standards. The sheer weight of unloading the facts of the investigation on the audience prevents much growth outside the next fact on screen.
The bulk of the work falls on the performances to keep audiences interested. Adam Driver and Annette Bening (as California Senator Dianne Feinstein) fit their roles perfectly. Driver’s Jones has just about all the character development in the film. He goes from by-the-book Senate staffer to idealist who desperately wants his five years worth of work to come out to the world. Bening doesn’t try for an exact emulation of Feinstein. She instead opts for more emotive performance, allowing viewers to see and hear what she is thinking through her facial expressions and vocal quality.
There are standout supporting performances as well. Lucas Dixon plays a staffer on Jones’ team with a conviction that never loses faith, but never reaches into naivete. Scott Shepherd gives the film a much-needed push of life toward the conclusion as former Colorado Senator Mark Udall.
However, most of the stuff one might consider compelling is in the first hour. The film nearly falls flat on its face once it reaches the second. Instead of fact-finding and flashbacks, viewers are stuck in the halls of Washington as Jones and Feinstein attempt to release the report.
The film tries to use this to generate tension. The transition feels jarring instead of thrilling. We see politicians bickering about whether or not the report should be released and not much else. Something can be suspenseful when viewers know the outcome. The Report fails miserably.
This is not helped by the fact that several of the film’s worst performances become critical characters in the second half. Jon Hamm’s Denis McDonough and Ted Levine’s John Brennan are particularly bad. Hamm and Levine’s performances are more line reading than acting. They’re playing characters that themselves have to act like they believe what they’re saying, but neither is believable in their role even when the characters are being honest.
The first of The Report is good film-making. It is plain, but fast, snappy and makes 6700 pages coherent. The second half is such a drag that it’s worth treating The Report as a 60-minute film. The torture report is an important document. It sure as hell deserved a better movie.
Final score: 5.7/10
