Review: Kill the Messenger đź‘Ť
The story of Kill the Messenger [IMDb, Trailer] is based on historic events and evolves around Gary Webb (played by Jeremy Renner). He works as reporter for a smaller newspaper, is married, has three kids, loves old cars and motor bikes, bot overall doesn’t really draw a lot of attention to himself. One day he stumbles upon a promising story that turns out to be even more than he expected.
I don’t want to dive too far into the history of the story, because there are a lot of sources around, if you want to dig deeper. As a quick summary: Many large cities had major problems due to the widespread consumption of Crack. Gary Webb found evidence that suggests involvement of the CIA in some very shady business surrounding the illegal import of Crack into the US in connection with the war in Nicaragua. After he starts asking questions and making a nuisance of himself, certain people decide to get rid of him by destroying his credibility.
This is a very profound topic to chose for a movie and requires a careful hand to stick to facts as much as possible, while also using intriguing storytelling to capture the audience. In that regard Kill the Messenger delivers supremely. It’s solid thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat almost for the full length of the movie. I also have to admit to having been surprised by Jeremy Renner, who had not left any lasting impression in any movie before (Avengers, Hansel & Gretel, …). His performance definitely helps this movie a lot.
Would I recommend this movie? Yes. Unless you only get excited about action movies, give this one a try. Even if you end up not liking the movie itself overly much, the realization that there is an actual truth behind the story will definitely have been worth it.
I originally published this review on Google+ a while ago.
