Strange and sometimes sinister activities can go on behind closed doors, but none are likely to be quite as shocking and horrifying as those depicted in The Report, a true story of a senate staffer’s investigation into the CIA’s employment of “enhanced interrogation tactics” used on suspects for years after the September 11th attacks. Writer/director Scott Z. Burns (who penned Contagion and Side Effects) treats a small investigation behind closed doors with a palpable sense of urgency and even danger, resulting in a very tense and unsettling picture.
Following the 9/11 terrorist attack, Daniel Jones (Adam Driver) is eager to move from Harvard into the CIA and help the government fight the war on terror but finds himself on a different path, eventually working for the FBI. When he’s assigned a new role in helping Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening) investigate the CIA following word of vanished tapes displaying horrific torture techniques, Jones accepts the position, promising to deliver an impartial fact-finding report. Despite meeting with subtle but immediate resistance from the CIA, Jones and his team slowly begin uncovering information and piecing together staggering details.
It’s a movie that essentially consists of Jones conducting interviews with informants along with reenactments of the spoken accounts given to him. This material could have been little more than a hard-to-watch series of encounters between talking heads, but instead the film is eye-opening and takes great care to show what the CIA were doing in graphic detail. Viewers witness psychologically and physically demeaning torture methods. Jones quickly discovers that despite studies attesting that the enhanced techniques were ineffective at drawing out information, the participants engaged in the practices secretly and continued using them over several years, tormenting 119 suspects (about a quarter of whom were found to be innocent of any charges), and in one instance waterboarding a suspect 180 times while imprisoned. These moments are harrowing to watch.
As the trail leads up the chain of command and reveals that many persons within the CIA and major political figures were behind these actions and covering their tracks, it isn’t long before Jones himself becomes a target. In fact, things even become grim for the lead when CIA officials threaten to take legal action and potentially put him in prison if his findings are made public. All of this adds even more immediate tension to the proceedings and the safety of the lead.
Driver does well at finding a way to make his role relatable, despite the man being a workaholic and the script paying almost no attention to his private life (although to be frank, he doesn’t appear to have one). Instead, the movie revolves entirely around his work, and Jones’ unrelenting approach brings into focus the man’s obsession the case, his growing frustration at devoting almost seven years of his life to finding the truth, as well as the indignation felt upon learning that his report will more than likely remain unreleased and buried. The actor, along with the process as depicted, certainly make the man’s rising fury understandable and add stress to the viewing experience.
This ultimately is a gripping and powerful film that displays just how much important information can be hidden from the general public. And additionally, what some in power are willing to do in order maintain their position; namely, dealing excuses to preserve appearances and continue careers rather than acknowledge mistakes and take accountability for their actions. It’s a disturbing precedent and an expose that is just as relevant today as when the real paper finally found the light of day. The Report is a timely, well-written and strongly acted piece that is very distressing but most certainly worth discovering.