Streep scooping all the plaudits
THE POST (Cert 12A: 116mins)
HOW often is any individual tested to see if they have the courage of their convictions? In the early 1970s the editor and publisher of the Washington Post risked jail for what they believed was more important than their personal freedom: the freedom of the press.
Steven Spielberg’s The Post recreates what happened almost 50 years ago and is both a fascinating history lesson and a timely reminder of the importance of defending basic democratic rights.
The Post is a little slow to start as it fills in the back story. In the 1960s, secretary of defence Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood) commissioned a report on America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
It concluded that the war was lost in 1965 but that successive presidents committed increasing numbers of American soldiers to the conflict rather than admitting defeat or losing face. They had all knowingly lied to the American people. Nobody escaped censure, from Eisenhower to JFK and beyond.
The report was top secret and never intended to be seen by the public. What became known as the Pentagon Papers were leaked to the press in 1971 sparking an enormous battle between the White House of President Nixon and the media.
As Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) and the Post’s owner and publisher Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) found themselves in a position to break the story, the moral dilemma over whether to publish the papers lies at the heart of what becomes an increasingly tense and involving drama. If they publish, they are committing treason. If they don’t they are failing in their duty to pursue the truth. You know you are in safe hands with a film that combines Spielberg, Streep and Hanks and The Post doesn’t disappoint.
Streep is given the greatest opportunity to shine. Graham had assumed control of the Washington Post when her husband died and she is often the only woman in a room filled with men. She is constantly ignored, patronised and bullied. She is about to launch the paper on the stock exchange when the Pentagon Papers becomes a pressing issue.
It is also a personal issue because McNamara is a close family friend. In defying the White House, betraying her friend and breaking the law, Graham was going against everything that made her a beloved high society hostess.
As she finds her voice, stands firm and decides what is truly important, Streep delivers another emotional, finely-tuned performance. Hanks is also on fine form as Bradlee, resolute in his belief that his paper must print the truth, hold the government to account and face the consequences.
The Post tackles a number of important issues from the integrity of the media to a vindictive Nixon presidency that considered itself above the law. It couldn’t be more relevant in our era of spin doctors, fake news and cyber attacks.
Spielberg ensures the film is also a hugely entertaining piece of storytelling that sets the pulse racing and keeps you enthralled until the very last moment.
THE COMMUTER (Cert 15; 104mins)
LIAM NEESON has become the Reliant Robin of movie action heroes. He might not be the most elegant or stylish contender but he always gets the job done.
The Commuter marks his fourth film with Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra and it is pretty much business as usual as another flawed, world-weary man is obliged to keep calm and carry on under the most extraordinary circumstances. Neeson’s Michael
MacCauley plays a former detective now sleepwalking through life as an insurance salesman in New York.
When he is laid off he heads home on his regular commuter train where the mysterious Joanna (Vera Farmiga, pictured left with Neeson) makes him an offer he cannot refuse.
In return for $100,000 all he has to do is identify a passenger before the train’s last stop. Naturally it is not as simple as it sounds and he is soon embroiled in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game. The director keeps events moving at a fair pace, emphasising the paranoia and claustrophobia of a confined space where everyone could be part of the same conspiracy.
It is nonsense but it is slick, highly entertaining nonsense.
LOVER FOR A DAY (Cert 15; 76mins)
DIRECTOR Philippe Garrel has been making films about love and heartbreak for more than 50 years. Lover For A Day is a modest wisp of a story yet it is filled with understanding and sympathy as it charts the fickle nature of desire.
Jeanne (Esther Garrel) is devastated by a break-up with her fiancé. She heads home to her father Gilles (Éric Caravaca) in search of comfort only to discover that he is in the early stages of a relationship with Ariane (Louise Chevillotte).
The two women are almost the same age and form an uneasy bond but one that is marked by jealousy and a need to compete for Gilles’ affections. Shot in lustrous black and white, Lover For A Day is an elegant reflection on the meaning of fidelity, revealing the characters in what could be their true colours.
THE FINAL YEAR (Cert 12A; 90mins)
WE KNOW exactly what is going to happen in The Final Year but that doesn’t make it any less tense or emotional. In 2016 director Greg Baker was given access to key figures in the Barack Obama administration during what would be the final year of his presidency.
They travel the world, committed to tackling climate change and improving relations with Cuba, Iran and Vietnam.
Everyone assumes that Hillary Clinton will be elected president and that there will be a smooth continuity of policies.
Little could they have known what would unfold on election night and that lends a bitter irony to an intelligent, absorbing documentary.
ATTRACTION (Cert 12A; 117mins)
RUSSIA wades into science-fiction blockbuster territory with Attraction, a cheesy, expensive-looking combination of E.T., Independence Day and The Day The Earth Stood Still.
When an alien spacecraft appears over Moscow, the authorities shoot it down. The Chertanovo neighbourhood is evacuated and sealed off by Colonel Lebedev (Oleg Menshikov) but his daughter sneaks in. She wants to take revenge for the death of her best friend but she winds up making a new friend in humanoid Haukon (Rinal Mukhametov).
Soon she is at the centre of the conflict between the intelligent aliens and the mob mentality of those who want to keep Earth in the hands of humans. Simplistic, unsubtle but never dull.