Directed by Scott Z. Burns
Starring Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Maura Tierney, Jon Hamm, Michael C. Hall
The urgency and devotion to revealing the truth is powerfully felt in this attention-grabbing new political drama. Portraying the scrutiny that was put on the CIA’s increased torture methods in the wake of 9/11, this is a fully committed and focused account of the report that was devised to expose the lies about the effectiveness of what was known as EITs – Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.
The Report is a procedural drama/thriller that explores the creation of this extremely in depth and disturbingly revealing report: it’s very simple, unfussy, and rather straight-forward about its presentation, but this makes it all the more focused in being a testament to the monumental work of those truly devoted to justice.
The man behind the report is Daniel Johns (Adam Driver), who has nothing but his work to fill up his life, so he puts his entire self into exposing the CIA, and this film follows along with him. There’s so much going on with this investigation and all the strands it sprawls out to, but this film manages to convey the same amount of focus and dedication as Daniel, making us viewers become as invested as he is.
Despite his devoted work commitment, he is just a young Senate staffer, and though he’s in the supportive hands of Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening), he must also combat the report’s troubling findings with those from the CIA and the White House who are antagonising him, as well as the two men who devised and implemented these EITs on hundreds of prisoners (most of whom were innocent).
These higher-ups, that Daniel goes up against, aren’t shown as merely moustache twirling villains. They’re seen to have their own ideas of how these EITs were beneficial, that are proven to be increasingly misguided by the report’s unravelling of this troubling era in America’s overseas war politics.
The Report is playing for a limited time in cinemas before finding a home on its streaming service. Although it’s not a film that dazzles with a style that demands the power of the cinema, it is a film that requires to be seen with as little distraction as possible, which the cinema offers up better than anywhere else. With no pretentions or unnecessary plot tangents to beef it up, The Report is a wholly engaging film that’ll exhaust you with its detailed portrayal of the search for the truth in such murkiness.
DAVID MORGAN-BROWN
