• It isn’t All the President’s Men— but there are worse ways to spend 2 hours than to watch a really talented cast and intelligent script try to at it even if director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) is no Pakula
  • Macdonald plays key scenarios in a parking garage (a really good tense thriller scene) and in and around the Watergate hotel
  • Perhaps it’s because of the attempts at All the President’s Men but I couldn’t help but see Russell Crowe as a messy (his desk at the Washington newspaper) long-haired Dustin Hoffman-type and Ben Affleck as the clean-cut–more Robert Redford (but with a twist of course with that end) role
  • Affleck is, of course, great at playing the sleaze
  • Macdonald starts with a theme of the media jumping to conclusions with some newsreel cutaways that pop up into the film and then that drops off—poor form
  • But still- we have two murders and an affair and at 29 minutes when they connect our mouse-trap narrative is off and running
  • A very talented ensemble – when Helen Mirren, Jeff Daniels, Robin Wright aren’t your stars the casting director should be applauded. Viola Davis in a small role—Jason Bateman is hilarious in a key role
  • Recommend but not that close to the top 15-20 of 2009