BEFORE: Russell Crowe carries over again from "The Next Three Days", even though he's been here for the LAST three days, making four total. And now Ben Affleck will be here for four films in a row, even if I drop "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot", which would have made it five. But look who's back, it's Helen Mirren in her 6th film this year, she's not that far behind Owen Wilson, Maya Rudolph and Robert De Niro, who all have 8 appearances so far in 2020. And I've also got 6 McConaughey films on tap, and he's already made one appearance so far - so it it's still anybody's game.
THE PLOT: When a congressional aide is killed, a Washington D.C. journalist starts investigating the case involving a U.S. Representative, his old college friend.
AFTER: I've decided that this film is like an Olympic diver who felt the need to squeeze one too many mid-air moves into his routine, which then forced him to hit the water at such an odd angle, it created so much splash that none of the judges were sure what type of dive he was even trying to do in the first place. Does that make sense? In other words, we're told to expect a certain kind of film, and THESE are the good people and THESE are the bad people, and then one little last-minute change and everything got upended at the end. Umm, I think. Let me just say that the ending is very unclear, and leave it at that.
Before that, there's a TON of conflict of interest stuff, I daresay too much to be believable. If a journalist had been the college roommate of a congressman, that's one thing - college roommates don't always stay in touch, so when that politician makes the news for some reason, the journalist might be allowed to report on it, in fact what he remembers about the guy from the college days might even come in handy, to give some insight on what he was like, where he came from. BUT, if that journalist is actively friends with that politician NOW, if that journalist is giving him (or his wife) relationship advice, or letting that congressman crash on his couch, then I gotta call a big NITPICK POINT here, there's just NO WAY that a decent newspaper editor would let that writer comment on his pal's situation, as it would be impossible for him to be objective.
In other instances seen here, the journalist comes across some key evidence in the case - photos of the killed woman that he can (sort of) trace back to their source, but the newspaper decides to sit on them for 48 hours and NOT turn them over to the police. But NITPICK POINT #2, how does this serve their interests? They eventually make a deal with the police to have first rights to publish any story connected to future evidence, but that should have been an assumed deal offered up in the first place. The evidence is only valuable if it helps the police solve the crime, so why not hand it over sooner? It does nobody any good if they don't share it.
This film was originally going to star Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, and act as something of a "Fight Club" reunion, but Brad Pitt had some disagreements with the director over the writing (something about the way they were adapting a TV series into a movie), plus there was a writers' strike in 2007 so even if they had wanted to accommodate Pitt's suggested changes, there were no writers available to do so. And then the film got delayed so long because of Pitt's schedule that Norton had to drop out, too. So Russell Crowe replaced Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck replaced Edward Norton. And then it eventually became very ironic that Affleck's character's affair with his staffer got revealed, and a few years later Affleck's own affair with his family's nanny made the news.
Boy, remember back in the late 2000's decade, when everyone was worried about the privatization of America's homeland security, and what it meant for corporations like Haliburton to have working relationships with the U.S. military and government? Those seem like such simpler times, before we were all worried about collusion with Russia, trade embargoes with China, nuclear attacks from North Korea, the appointment of too many conservative judges, the loss of abortion rights, global warming, caravans of immigrants heading toward our borders, immigrant kids being put in cages, and then of course the pandemic, collapse of the economy, and police violence caused by systemic racism? Man, I sort of miss the days of Dick Cheney's shenanigans, because at least you knew where you stood back then. These last three and a half years have really made me nostalgic for the Bush years, of all things - we didn't know how good we had it at the time.
I've got to cut my ramblings short today - I have to go catch a train for Boston, but if I think of anything else to say I'll add it later tonight.
Also starring Ben Affleck (last seen in "Triple Frontier"), Rachel McAdams (last seen in "Morning Glory"), Helen Mirren (last seen in "The Debt"), Robin Wright (last seen in "The Singing Detective"), Harry Lennix (last seen in "The Human Stain"), Jason Bateman (last seen in "Central Intelligence"), Jeff Daniels (last seen in "The Catcher Was a Spy"), Josh Mostel (last seen in "Rounders"), Wendy Makkena (last seen in "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit"), Michael Jace (last seen in "The Great White Hype"), Brennan Brown (last seen in "I Love You Phillip Morris"), Michael Berresse, Michael Weston (last seen in "Wish I Was Here"), Viola Davis (last seen in "Widows"), Barry Shabaka Henley (last seen in "Paterson"), David Harbour (last seen in "W.E."), Zoe Lister-Jones (last seen in "All Good Things"), Tuck Milligan, Steve Park (last seen in "A Serious Man"), Maria Thayer (last seen in "Table 19"), Rob Benedict (last seen in "Still Waiting...", Dan Brown, Katy Mixon (last seen in "Hell or High Water"), Shane Edelman, Gregg Binkley, with cameos from Lou Dobbs (last seen in "Get Me Roger Stone"), Chris Matthews (last seen in "Morning Glory"), Bob Schieffer (last seen in "Straight Outta Compton"), Bob Woodward.
RATING: 5 out of 10 half-smokes from Ben's Chili Bowl
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