RESIGNED TO FAILURE
Watergate flick doesn’t go in deep enough to hold interest
MARK FELT: THE MAN WHO BROUGHT DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE
THE new movie about Watergate is so boring that when whistleblower Mark Felt (Liam Neeson) finally meets up with Bob Woodward (Julian Morris) in a shadowy parking garage, you may find yourself wishing you could leave with the Washington Post reporter instead. Woodward’s story, of course, was told in the 1976 film “All the President’s Men,” and if you really want to learn about this piece of juicy political history, it’s still your best bet.
“Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House” is all handsome period costumes, smoky rooms and muttered dialogue; you could be forgiven for thinking it’s from one of any number of John Grisham plots. Writerdirector Peter Landesman (“Concussion”) downplays escalating revelations about the scandal — the 1972 break-in at the Watergate complex that is eventually tied to, and leads to the resignation of, President Nixon — in a monotone screenplay.
Neeson, as Felt, is a veteran FBI man who is dismayed when he’s passed over to replace late chief J. Edgar Hoover. The new appointee, L. Patrick Gray (Marton Csokas), is beholden to the president in a way that infuriates Felt — inasmuch as Neeson’s muted performance can be said to be infuriated — as he maintains that the FBI’s independence is crucial to the functioning of the government. Given its obvious parallels with modern-day events, it’s a shame Felt’s ensuing story is told so wanly.
As the informant nick- named “Deep Throat,” he fed crucial classified information to reporters from the Washington Post and Time magazine that helped — well, the wordy title says it all. But this film is perplexingly light on the particulars of those meetings, as well as Felt’s thought process leading up to them. Neeson is a good actor, but his forehead can’t do all the talking.
Landesman’s supporting cast goes about their roles gamely enough, especially Diane Lane as Felt’s frustrated wife. But a thin side plot about their missing daughter Joan (Maika Monroe), whom Felt suspects of being involved with a Weather Underground-like group, seems included mainly to demonstrate Felt’s ability to show emotion.
Still, there’s a redeeming quality here. In an era of badly spelled insults slung with abandon on Twitter, “Mark Felt” is at least a testament to an era when political scandal unfolded with a little more finesse.