The Report Movie Review: It’s an Adam Driver show all the way

The unique thing about The Report is the way it juxtaposes the world of sharp suited CIA agents and manipulative senators in their power corridors and that of the blood and excreta smeared torture cells of the CIA, during one of the most controversial chapters in American history. Earnest senate staffer Daniel J Jones (Adam Driver) is entrusted with the task of investigating the CIA’s controversial detention and interrogation programme that was created in the aftermath of 9/11. Director Scott Z Burns (Contagion fame) wastes no time in letting us know that Daniel is the kind of person with tunnel vision. As his investigations take him deeper and deeper into the web of lies and deceit that were used to cover up the CIA’s torture tactics, the 7000 page report becomes his life. In fact, at one point, when he feels let down by his boss (the brilliant Annette Bening), and lashes out at her, she reminds him: “Are you working for me or are you working for the report?”For five years Daniel spends days and nights in the grey and black basement room allotted to him and his rapidly thinning team, surfacing only to update his boss and decide on the next course of action. The feisty Feinstein is determined to push ahead with the report and get an apology from the CIA for the contentious programme. And the jargon loaded debates between agents, senators and secretaries, is punctuated by the graphic depiction of the said techniques on prisoners and former assets. In fact, the torture scenes — that appear on flashback — actually set up the stage for Adam Driver to display his brilliance, as he makes a strong case for the CIA to be brought to book. As far as procedurals go, The Report does not have enough to keep you on the edge. But you keep watching, and you keep watching, simply because it has such a stellar cast (Jon Hamm of Mad Men and the oh-so-brief appearance of Ted Levine) and also because most of us are, by now, an Adam Driver fan. There is no poetic justice in the film that details torture, especially a technique called waterboarding that claimed many lives in the process. But you do end up rooting for the man who is relentless in his pursuit of truth, and the woman who makes it possible.