Year: 2019
Director: Scott Z Burns
Country: US
Language: English
From All the President's Men (1976) to Zodiac (2007) journalist procedural movies have proven very popular with audiences for many decades. Spotlight (2017), for instance, won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The Report's subject matter doesn't deal with anything too long ago; most audience members will remember the CIA's inhumane use of "Enchanced Interrogation Techniques" )aka straight up torture) on potential 9/11 suspects.
Idealistic Senate staffer Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver), tasked by his boss (Annette Benning) to lead an investigation into the CIA's post 9/11 Detention and Interrogation Program, uncovers shocking secrets.
The Report is fairly straightfoward; condensing vast quantities of information into an easy to digest narrative that acts as more a procedural drama than an intense thriller. As the run-time goes on, we learn not only about the torture, but the political machinations that almost suppressed Jones’ completed report. The growing moral outrage is complimented by the film's brooding expose.
Scott Z. Burns' picture is a bit too restrained, attempting to just be a factual account of events that transpired. The problem with this approach is that there is a considerable lack of character development and emotion. We hear that Driver's character has had a difficult time with his family due to taking on the report- but we don't see it. In addition The Report feels very "by the numbers", it doesn't set itself apart from any other prodecural film.
I mentioned films like Spotlight (2017) and Zodiac (2007) at the beginning of this review; those films are far more involved in the human drama of the subject matter than The Report is. The picture is adequate, obviously well acted, but doesn't show us anything we already didn't know. There are better films that are worth your time.
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