The Report

Based on true events, The Report follows analyst Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver) as he’s tasked with researching and writing about the less-than-savory interrogation techniques used against suspected terrorists in the wake of 9/11. Filmmaker Scott Z. Burns delivers a deliberately-paced narrative that could hardly be more dense in terms of information, as The Report, for the most part, details the exacting minutia of compiling and attempting to publish an incendiary government document – which ultimately paves the way for a hit-and-miss narrative that contains little in the way of character development. The relentlessness of Burns’ modus operandi does, as a result, make it increasingly difficult to connect to Jones’ ongoing endeavors, which is both surprising and disappointing, certainly, given the effectiveness of Driver’s performance. (And likewise, the supporting cast is rife with strong work, especially Annette Bening as Dianne Feinstein.) The smattering of admittedly powerful sequences (eg the initial discovery of waterboarding as an interrogation tool) can’t quite compensate for a progressively hands-off atmosphere, and it is, in the end, impossible to label The Report as anything more than a well-acted and well-made info dump.

** out of ****