An excellent Adam Driver ties himself into knots of frustration in this factually based account of the Senate investigation into the CIA’s post 9/11 EIT (Enhanced Interrogation programme), a fiercely unforging denunciation. Writer and director Scott Z Burns condenses approaching 7,000 pages of information into an involving drama that has a kinship with films such as Spotlight and All the President’s Men but does get a little bogged down in paperwork at times.
The story of the investigation led by Daniel Jones (Driver) at the behest of Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening) unfolds against an unhealthy colour palette of grey blue pocked with toxic yellow. “You don’t have a legal problem, you have a sunlight problem,” says an attorney, cryptically. It’s true of the central character, who has spent five years excavating ugly truths for a report that may never see the light of day. And it’s true of the film, which, although compelling, feels a bit like being locked in an airless room with the walls closing in.
