We have all at one time or another been faced with the choice of knowing something or not. Most of the time it revolves around something happening to us and if knowing would lessen the pain. I have taken both paths, where I want to know and where I want to be kept in the dark, knowing I can always pretend it didn’t happen because I don’t know.
Now does that same thought pattern stay true for things that don’t affect me directly? I would like to say yes, because when you do it puts the world in a whole different light.
Daniel Jones (Adam Driver) wants to do something for his country. After 9/11, Daniel switched his major to national security and has goals of working in a position that can make a difference in the world. He gets his chance when Senator Dianne Feinstein ask him to lead an investigation into the C.I.A. and its post 9/11 Detention and Interrogation Program. Once the snooping begins, Daniel and his team start to uncover mounds of paperwork that points to methods that are being used that you would not think would be coming from a country like the United States. Once in he goes down the rabbit hole, it gets deeper and deeper as Daniel’s investigation uncovers one of the biggest cover ups in this country’s history.
Telling a story as complex as this one can be a task in itself, with so many moving parts and where to shine the light can be even more tricky. In the spirt of films like All the President’s Men and Spotlight the story on how the information was gathered is just as important as the information itself. Writer/Director Scott Z. Burns does a stand up job in balancing the facts you are getting and how they are presented really keeps the film flowing and never gets daunting. What you are seeing is riveting and is not the kind of movie that is going to make you feel too good about mankind afterwards. With complelling performances by Driver and Annette Bening are spectacular and moving, especially Driver who conveys the fortitude and frustrations the real Daniel Jones must have felt throughout the five plus years it took to uncover all of this. There are scenes that are hard to watch, but you know how important they are that you don’t want to turn away. What we ultimately get is a film that delivers on all fronts and that will make you question things and ask why we would ever do something like that. The Report should be required viewing, because sometimes we need to hear the things we don’t always want to and it does that, and becomes a movie that you won’t soon forget.
