Review of Mark Felt the Man Who Brought Down the White House

The commencement thing to say most Peter Landesman's Marking Felt: The Human being Who Brought Down the White House is that information technology is not the B-side to All the President's Men, the movie that immortalized Felt (albeit anonymously, as "Deep Pharynx") for the moviegoing public. Information technology doesn't cast that picture's procedural spell, or dovetail with its narrative on more than than a couple of occasions. The second is that it has little if anything to say to our own moment, in which a sizable percentage of Americans (to say nada of the earth'south other inhabitants) are rooting for our own Mark Felts, whatever their motives may be, to betrayal executive malfeasance.

Instead, what the picture is almost is correct there in its title — offering insight into one of history's smashing whistleblowers, one whose power to intrigue grew during the decades his identity remained secret. It'south a part very well suited to Liam Neeson, whose righteousness fills the screen and sometimes seems all the moving picture tin offering. The solid ticking-clock biopic should perform respectably among serious-minded moviegoers, only lacks the oomph of a must-run across.

The Lesser Line Neeson's strong functioning buoys an uncomplicated picture.

RELEASE DATE Sep 29, 2017

Felt is a 30-year veteran of the FBI when nosotros meet him, during the terminal twelvemonth of Richard Nixon's start presidential term. (Onscreen titles keep reminding us how many days remain until the election.) Long a trusted colleague of J. Edgar Hoover, he enters the film simply as he'southward existence asked, more or less, to betray him: A few of Nixon's officials have brought him in for a meeting, request the smartest way to fire Hoover. Felt replies with something of a diplomatic non-statement, then continues with a reassurance that sounds very much like a threat: He informs his questioners that as of gossip entering FBI offices — when an official is "seen with a woman not his wife … seen with a man, not his wife" — is written upward in a memo, and all the memos become through Felt on their way to Hoover'southward files. "All your secrets are safe with united states," he insists — perhaps the classiest way he could possibly paraphrase the sentiment "Nice Administration ya got here, fellas. Shame if somethin' should happen to information technology."

According to Landesman's screenplay (based on books past Felt and John D. O'Connor), Felt wasn't a groovy or manipulator only a truthful laic. When he claims that the Bureau is "the most respected institution in the globe," he seems to mean information technology; and the surest mode to puncture that institution's integrity, according to Felt, is to let any other government body exert control over information technology.

Which is only what happens when Hoover dies and, instead of promoting Felt to the directorship he deserves, Nixon appoints L. Patrick Gray, a human with no police-enforcement experience. Felt is certain he'south likewise loyal to Nixon to do his job independently; and if the rest of u.s.a. demand convincing, nosotros get to see Gray at his desk in a turquoise polo shirt while all his underlings wear sober G-man suits.

Gray acquiesces to pressure regarding the new investigation into the Watergate intermission-in, telling Felt he has 48 hours to wrap things up. Felt is indignant, and of form keeps digging. The movie never explains how this deadline is overcome, merely it watches raptly as Felt commands loyal investigators over the coming weeks, furious that "the goddamn punks are running the country."

Though Neeson is surrounded in this office past some fine actors (including Brian d'Arcy James, a reminder of how much better Spotlight was at turning investigative work into captivating cinema), the picture makes as well petty try to constitute them as characters. Josh Lucas' Charlie Bates gets the most attention, with strong hints that he knows Felt is the source of the leaks causing increasing function friction. But this is non an ensemble picture.

About those leaks: Hither, Felt'south illicit communications with The Washington Mail service'due south Bob Woodward are less compelling than his sit down-downs with Sandy Smith (Bruce Greenwood), a Time mag reporter also covering the Watergate scandal. Despite the script'southward lack of subtlety (information technology needs to tell us multiple times that, prior to this, the straight-arrow Felt had never given Smith a single surreptitious in their long acquaintance), the chemical science between the two actors every bit they meet in a dim diner represents some of the moving-picture show's nigh effective drama.

Needing to broaden his portrait across Watergate (and to erect a thin defence force confronting accusations of hagiography), Landesman sometimes awkwardly weaves in references to the lawman's not-whistleblowing work. Well-nigh important is the acknowledgement of his efforts to take down the Conditions Underground, militant activists both Felt and the White House feared. Several years after his retirement, Felt was convicted of violating the Constitution in his pursuit of the activists. (Ronald Reagan pardoned him.) But the scene hither in which he orders that crackdown — which others object to as a render to Hoover's "bad old days" — feels tacked-on, less an obligation to history than a manner of solidifying a subplot in which Felt worries that his daughter Joan, who disappeared many months ago, might have joined the militant left.

Historians will likely accept much to say about this picture, which, despite its acknowledgment that personal grievance had much to practice with Felt's whistleblowing, all the same paints him as basically noble. But equally in his 2015 motion picture Concussion, Landesman seemingly is too enamored of those who go up confronting the powerful to let us decide on our ain how their righteousness balances out against their faults.

Production companies: Mandalay Entertainment Grouping, Torridon Films, MadRiver Pictures, Endurance Media, Scott Free Productions, Cara Films, Riverstone Pictures
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Bandage: Liam Neeson, Diane Lane, Marton Csokas, Ike Barinholtz, Tony Goldwyn, Bruce Greenwood, Michael C. Hall, Brian d'Arcy James, Josh Lucas, Eddie Marsan, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Maika Munroe, Tom Sizemore, Kate Walsh, Noah Wyle, Julian Morris
Director-screenwriter: Peter Landesman
Producers: Ridley Scott, Giannina Scott, Marc Butan, Anthony Katagas, Peter Landesman, Steve Richards, Jay Roach
Executive producers: Yale Badik, Des Carey, Colin Wilson, Peter Guber, Jeffrey Vinik, Nik Bower, Deepak Nayar, Michael Schaefer
Director of photography: Adam Kimmel
Production designer: David Creepo
Costume designer: Lorraine Calvert
Editor: Tariq Anwar
Composer: Daniel Pemberton
Casting directors: Lindsay Graham, Mary Vernieu
Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Special Presentations)