*My review of The Report was originally published on Film Inquiry. Click here to read the original post and check out more great reviews from this awesome site!*
If Motherless Brooklyn is 2019’s odd, imperfect riff on Chinatown, then Scott Z. Burns‘ The Report is our latest update of Alan J. Pakula‘s All the President’s Men for these politically tumultuous times. Of course, the seminal 1976 Watergate thriller has been a popular touchstone in recent years, influencing everything from the Oscar-winning Spotlight to Steven Spielberg‘s less effective The Post. Though The Report is not a newspaper film like its predecessors, the procedural compilation of research is a natural fit for this production, which chronicles the trials and tribulations of congressional researcher Daniel Jones (Adam Driver). Tasked with assembling a report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of “enhanced interrogation” techniques (also known as torture) for Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Benning), Jones finds himself caught in a web of politics and modern history that goes well beyond his jurisdiction.
It’s a compelling foundation for a movie, and it offers very specific pleasures for those of us who enjoy this kind of story. But like so many recent films that misunderstand the effectiveness of classic films from the 1970s (hello there, Joker), The Report seems hellbent on creating the most obvious version of this story imaginable, employing flashbacks and didactic speechifying in order to guide its audience to the correct political, moral, and ethical conclusions. I don’t mean to suggest that The Report should be more ambiguous about whether torture was actually good or bad; instead, my belief is that the film should trust its audience to come to the correct conclusion.
Unfortunately, trusting its audience does not seem to be a concept in The Report‘s wheelhouse. While All the President’s Men and similar films operate by alluding to different investigative strands within the bigger picture, writer/director Burns is unable to conjure up the invigorating feeling of discovering a rapidly expanding web of blatant wrongdoing and corrupt cover-ups. Burns‘ most drastic dramatic misstep is his reliance on flashbacks: every time Jones makes progress in the investigation, we’re treated to a sepia tone flashback that chronicles whatever horrific event he found in the CIA files.
Why exactly do we need to see the details of the CIA’s torture techniques? Is this substantially doing anything to convey the gravity of our nation’s recent sins? I don’t think so — primarily, I think these scenes exist to keep audiences from getting bored. Essentially, The Report seemingly wants to emulate the procedural’s conventions without committing to the specifics of how that genre actually functions. It feels the need to break up its action, to spell out to the audience what exactly is happening and what it means. Even the limited information we receive about Jones’ mental and emotional state is spelled out — characters quite literally tell him that he’s too obsessed and too invested in this research, instead of letting Driver‘s performance do that work for us.
The lack of context around our lead character is indicative of a greater problem: The Report plays like two films squished together, and neither has enough room to breathe. The first half details the research, while the second half focuses on the specifics of what it took to get the torture report published. Both would make for interesting movies on their own; together, they almost cancel each other out. In fact, the scope of the story makes it hard to escape the feeling that The Report would have worked better as an Amazon limited series. A different format would have enabled Burns and his team to explore the case in greater detail, making the legal and personal danger for Jones and his team feel genuinely palpable. In its current state, The Report runs through its story too quickly—and in such an obvious, leaden manner — to ever make much of an impact.
THE FINAL GRADE: C (5.3/10)
Images courtesy of Amazon Studios
If Motherless Brooklyn is 2019’s odd, imperfect riff on Chinatown, then Scott Z. Burns‘ The Report is our latest update of Alan J. Pakula‘s All the President’s Men for these politically tumultuous times. Of course, the seminal 1976 Watergate thriller has been a popular touchstone in recent years, influencing everything from the Oscar-winning Spotlight to Steven Spielberg‘s less effective The Post. Though The Report is not a newspaper film like its predecessors, the procedural compilation of research is a natural fit for this production, which chronicles the trials and tribulations of congressional researcher Daniel Jones (Adam Driver). Tasked with assembling a report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of “enhanced interrogation” techniques (also known as torture) for Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Benning), Jones finds himself caught in a web of politics and modern history that goes well beyond his jurisdiction.
It’s a compelling foundation for a movie, and it offers very specific pleasures for those of us who enjoy this kind of story. But like so many recent films that misunderstand the effectiveness of classic films from the 1970s (hello there, Joker), The Report seems hellbent on creating the most obvious version of this story imaginable, employing flashbacks and didactic speechifying in order to guide its audience to the correct political, moral, and ethical conclusions. I don’t mean to suggest that The Report should be more ambiguous about whether torture was actually good or bad; instead, my belief is that the film should trust its audience to come to the correct conclusion.
Unfortunately, trusting its audience does not seem to be a concept in The Report‘s wheelhouse. While All the President’s Men and similar films operate by alluding to different investigative strands within the bigger picture, writer/director Burns is unable to conjure up the invigorating feeling of discovering a rapidly expanding web of blatant wrongdoing and corrupt cover-ups. Burns‘ most drastic dramatic misstep is his reliance on flashbacks: every time Jones makes progress in the investigation, we’re treated to a sepia tone flashback that chronicles whatever horrific event he found in the CIA files.
Why exactly do we need to see the details of the CIA’s torture techniques? Is this substantially doing anything to convey the gravity of our nation’s recent sins? I don’t think so — primarily, I think these scenes exist to keep audiences from getting bored. Essentially, The Report seemingly wants to emulate the procedural’s conventions without committing to the specifics of how that genre actually functions. It feels the need to break up its action, to spell out to the audience what exactly is happening and what it means. Even the limited information we receive about Jones’ mental and emotional state is spelled out — characters quite literally tell him that he’s too obsessed and too invested in this research, instead of letting Driver‘s performance do that work for us.
The lack of context around our lead character is indicative of a greater problem: The Report plays like two films squished together, and neither has enough room to breathe. The first half details the research, while the second half focuses on the specifics of what it took to get the torture report published. Both would make for interesting movies on their own; together, they almost cancel each other out. In fact, the scope of the story makes it hard to escape the feeling that The Report would have worked better as an Amazon limited series. A different format would have enabled Burns and his team to explore the case in greater detail, making the legal and personal danger for Jones and his team feel genuinely palpable. In its current state, The Report runs through its story too quickly—and in such an obvious, leaden manner — to ever make much of an impact.
THE FINAL GRADE: C (5.3/10)
Images courtesy of Amazon Studios
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