Review: "The Report" Does a Decent Job of Telling Harsh Truths

Scene from The Report (2019)

It's Fall 2019, and writer/director Scott Z. Burns is concerned about America's well-being. Two months after collaborating with Stephen Soderbergh on the Panama Papers drama The Laundromat, he takes to something even more pressing and controversial. The Report finds Adam Driver starring as Senator staffer Daniel Jones as he discovers some dark secrets in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks. Apparently, the War on Terror isn't off to the friendliest of starts with suspects being waterboarded, tortured, and placed in confined spaces while soldiers blare Marilyn Manson tracks. Jones is one of the few in Washington D.C. with a conscience to stand up against the system, and it's here that the procedural begins to take form. The results are engrossing yet uncomfortable, managing to reflect a taboo subject with such visceral force that it's equal parts shocking and too much. 

Jones is the perfect person to work in such a secretive position. There is a quietness to his demeanor, capable of seeming distant as he absorbs information from a confined bunker located somewhere in the basement. It's a place so paranoid about leaks that they don't even have a printer in the room. Everything must be approved. As a result, everything that Jones does is filtered through outside forces, meaning that any news he receives will be impossible to get out. Burns spends the first half-hour creating the career of Jones, who's so comfortable working at the C.I.A. headquarters that he can laugh off procedurals as he leaves for the day. There's no sense that Jones loves his job, though Driver gives him a commitment that starts with the doldrums and slowly builds to the shocking element that would give this film any chance at a legacy.

It has always been popular for these political thrillers to buck the trend of "show don't tell" by sticking people into interviews. They let a conversation slowly unwind into the detail that makes them break down. The interviewer is left in a state of disarray, questioning their own values as they grapple with the truth. It's why films like Spotlight and The Post are likely to resonate for decades. They're shocking but tangible enough to make them comfortable. The Report has no time for comfort. Jones never gets to be in the room where the torture happens. He reads the documents, constantly in talks with Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Benning) about bringing the news public. There is an urgency to the direction, even as forces such as Cyrus Clifford (Corey Stoll) plan to stand in his way, killing Jones' career in the process.

But in this case, showing will divide audiences. The subject is already uncomfortable enough, but to see reenactments on the screen add a depressing urgency to Jones' mission. These scenes escape the quiet offices and throw the viewer quickly into a rattled cage. Even the evolution of torture songs from heavy metal into kiddie songs feels bound to blow out your speakers from shock alone. These moments contradict the notion put up by the people in board meetings, believing that it's an ethical way of retrieving information that will solve everything. The issue is that this isn't how America solves its problems. Jones understands that and desperately wants the public to know. The risk is high, and by the time the third act kicks in the audience is already adjusted to the worst of things. They want to see change.

What separates this from far superior films like Zero Dark Thirty (which gets referenced here) is that Burns is more interested in the truth. He wants to share the brutal reality over any thematic resonance that the Kathryn Bigelow film supplanted into the story. There is a good reason. The amount of cinema surrounding 9/11 has grown over the past decade, but none have gotten to the provocative heart of America's more controversial actions. It's always about the sense of loss and personal journeys that are important but don't reflect the actual war in a way that creates an accessible narrative. Zero Dark Thirty may be notoriously inaccurate, but it captures the hopeless chase that America has faced ever since 2001. The Report is less emotional in that it's going more for hard details, sitting the viewer down and forcing them to view the harsh actions in a way that's difficult. 

With that said, the film mostly works because of Driver's general charisma (he still has two more films coming in December 2019). Over time he has become the actor you want for the stoic archetype, capable of being masculine yet reserved as he navigates worlds full of harsh secrets. While this may make him seem boring, his repressed attitude actually makes the moments when a clear breakthrough happens to feel all the more substantial. He leads this film with a desire for empathy. He wants to know the truth at any cost. It's phenomenal work that elevates the film above conventional procedural material. He manages to make such concepts as talking about classified documents in a drab office building sound engrossing. He makes this film work by merely observing, pushing himself closer to an answer that eventually shows in stacks of papers full of damning details. 

The Report is another journalistic tale of a reporter chasing the story, only this time it comes on a subject that is a bit brutal. Even with almost 20 years removed, 9/11 remains a tough subject to fully digest and the fallout of the country's morality falling into a grey zone is just as tricky. While this may be entertaining for War on Terrorism enthusiasts, it's far from the most accessible tale that could be told. There's little sympathy by the end, instead of giving the audience plenty to mull over. Burns does an excellent job of bringing this story to light in a well-directed two-hour film that never skimps on detail. How does America come back from torturing suspects for information? Is it even possible? There's a lot of harsh uncertainty that clouds this film, and it may be what keeps it out of the Oscar race. Even then, it's nice to know that there's a way to make history feel dangerous and important in a way that will hopefully resonate with the few brave enough to give the film a chance.