With this one, we go back to 2004 and the Presidential election between George W. Bush and John Kerry. Like in the current race to be President, various members of the media are always looking for any flaws in the candidates. In this film, we see a group of CBS journalists investigate Bush's military history to see if they are true or not.
Throughout the film, I felt interested in finding out where this was going as I did not know this story at all. But I was not getting fully gripped with it, and I think that is mainly due to the film not making itself entertaining. It felt quite pedestrian most of the time.
Thankfully, the performances by the leads Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford gives this film enough entertainment to make this solid viewing.
We know how good Blanchett and Redford can be. In this one, it is Blanchett's character that this film focuses on and this is definitely a performance worth mentioning. As for Redford, it was solid. But I think his character could have been branched a bit more, especially when he is portraying one of America's most celebrated anchorman.
It was nice people like Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace on screen. Especially Grace, who his character was giving some regular comedic relief that worked throughout.
Its main flaw was the biased nature towards the story. It goes for the 'journalists are heroes' and 'Bush is evil' stand-point. I think we would have had a tenser viewing had the film shown the development from both sides.
Overall, it's solidly made and engaging enough. But to me, it felt like there was more to this story then what is being told on screen. This probably relates to biased nature to it and therefore we did get the story from the Bush side of things. This definitely could have been better. But with James Vanderbilt in his directing debut in this, I will give this film some leeway.
On the whole, Vanderbilt has done a pretty good job. I can definitely see him direct a lot more, with premises that will attract mainstream audiences.
It's a shame this film won't get a lot of box office as a similar film Spotlight is getting a lot more noticed due its success at the Oscars.
Rating: 7/10
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