Kill the Messenger

Politics and political cover ups have been a great source of material that Hollywood can't resist to showcase, and the more controversial the better. As far back as "The Philadelphia Story" to "All the President's Men" to "Michael Clayton" to "The Ides of March" do we see time and again exposure to corruption, deceit and wrongdoings all the name of national security. So, since Hollywood just couldn't help themselves by bringing "Kill the Messenger" to the screen, we can reap the benefits by watching, yet another cover up being exposed for all to see.

Based on the true story of journalist Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner), the film takes place in the mid 1990s, when Webb inadvertently uncovered the CIA's past role in importing huge amounts of cocaine into the U.S. that was aggressively sold in ghettos across the country to raise tons of money for the Nicaraguan Contras rebel army back in the 1980s. Despite enormous pressure not to, especially by his boss Jerry Ceppos (Oliver Platt) and editor Anna Simons (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Webb chose to pursue the story and eventually went public with his evidence, publishing the series "Dark Alliance". As a result he experienced a vicious smear campaign fueled by the CIA. At that point, Webb found himself defending his integrity, his family, specifically his wife, Sue (Rosemarie DeWitt) and his life, all the while desperately hanging onto his sanity.

Others to round out the cast are Barry Pepper as Russell Dodson, a prosecutor, Michael Sheen as Fred Weil, Paz Vega as Coral Baca, an informant, Ray Liotta as John Cullen, Tim Blake Nelson as Alan Fenster, an attorney Webb consulted, Michael Kenneth Williams as Ricky Ross, Andy Garcia as Norwin Meneses, Josh Close as Rich Kline, a journalist at The Washington Post, Robert Patrick as Ronald J. Quail, Jen Harper as Ricky Ross Trial Judge, Lucas Hedges, Matthew Lintz and Parker Douglas as Ian Webb, Eric Webb and Christine Webb, Gary and Sue Webb's children.

This was effectively directed by Michael Cuesta ("L.I.E." '01, "12 and Holding" '05, "Babylon Fields" (TV movie) '07, "Tell Tale" '09, "Roadie" '11, "Second Sight" (TV movie) '13). The slow intensity that Renner displayed as this plot became thicker was, not only fine acting, but also the mark of effective directing conveying a slow crumbling of this man trying to cope with a world that is anything but honest. It was well written by Peter Landesman based on the books, "Dark Alliance" by Gary Webb and "Kill the Messenger" by Nick Schou. The script simply flowed from scene to scene, where, if it was written questionably, it was have been convoluted since so much was going on here. Now, there were some areas of jumping a bit, but not enough to take away from the meat of this premise and story. Renner probably gave his best performance since "Hurt Locker", and it wouldn't surprise me if he got a nod come Oscar time.

If you're into political cover ups, conspiracy theories and the like, this will heaven for you, because this will undoubtedly fill that 'rebel against the government' mindset out there for all you political junkies.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                          Rated: R                            112mins.