The Russell Crowe starrer is one of the better movies to have hit the screens this year. It’s subtle, suspenseful and at times thrilling. The cast is pretty good, with Crowe (Cal McAffrey) donning the lead role of a brusque, burly, veritable investigative journalist. With Helen Mirren (Cameron Lynne) as a hard nosed editor, Rachel McAdams (Della Frye) as a tough cookie blogger, Ben Affleck (Stephen Collins the congressman) as a sinful and now repentant public official and an array of cameos from some lesser names the movie has a good package of talent.
The movie starts off with a thud, when a young lead researcher, Sonia Baker, for an up-and-coming hotshot congressman (Collins) gets apparently murdered. This comes as a jolt to Collins’ professional pursuits and rocking of his personal foundation. The Congressman who leads a group of fellow like-minded colleagues is in the midst of investigating a scandal surrounding a private consultant/security/military/everything firm named ‘Pointcorp’. ‘PointCorp’ is the beneficiary of sizable military/police contracts in the middle-east and are being investigated for malpractice and corruption.
Mcaffrey the lead investigative journalist for ‘Washington Globe’ newspaper captures your eye as a smart, influential and contacts-rich journalist. He seems to have stumbled upon a couple of drive-by murders of a young black youth and a budding pizza entrepreneur. Thanks to a washed-up petty criminal McAffrey finds some interesting material linking Ms Baker and the young black murder-attempt victim. Collins is meanwhile at the eye of the storm as allegations about his extra-marital affairs surface thanks to some nosy publications. Collins, who is under relentless attack from the media tries to get some friendly cover and pays a visit to his pal McAffrey.
Collins confides about his illegal relationship with Ms Baker to McAffrey, but contends she was murdered when everyone seemed to think it was an apparent suicide. A theory about PointCorp’s involvement to marginalize Collins by linking him in a public morality stench evolves. McAffrey agrees to follow the trail of the evidence on Baker’s suicide-murder but tries to console his friend Collins on how to approach the morality onslaught. McAffrey investigates the link between the young black youth, who while recovering at a hospital is murdered, and Baker. As information flows on how the youth came into possession of Ms Baker’s whereabouts emerge, a stronger link between Baker’s and the drive-by murders of the youth and the pizza man emerge.
McAffrey enlists the help of a young and at times cocky blogger Della, they have their moments which draws a few laughter, investigate the 3 murders. As details emerge on Baker’s relationship with Collins and an apparent hitman being employed to kill Baker, the plot thickens. McAffrey keeps Collins apprised of the developments and thanks to some insider help from a whistle-blower in PointCorp, McAffrey is able to track down the hit-man and nearly gets killed. As further evidence comes to light the McAffrey team gets a break when they crack a PR firm hotshot, Dominic Foy, for PointCorp and find out more about Ms Baker. As details emerge about the background of Baker and the real intention of why she got hired by Collins, the whole plot plays out as a setup of Collins for his eventual marginalization in the PointCorp investigation.
McAffrey works tirelessly to pin more evidence and at the same time is under undue pressure to produce some headlines for their struggling newspaper. McAffrey finally seems to have caught a break when Dominic confesses on tape about the knowledge he has on Baker. There still seems to be a missing piece to the whole puzzle as McAffrey works on the finer details and evidence to link Baker’s killing with PointCorp, when he finds out a startling truth, thanks to a thinking mind and an insatiable thirst for honesty and contempt for false-truths. How and what McAffrey finds out while on his pursuit to link the murder and PointCorp is part of a predictable yet thrilling end.
The movie is thrilling and scary in not a gory sense but how pragmatic this whole plot is, the potential for outside forces to influence anything, the real role of journalism and the dire future it faces [Check this entry on Newspaper], the 24/7 tabloidish world and the presence of some real honest investigative reporters. Overall this movie is definitely worth your ticket… B-.
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