Having Scott Z. burns as director and writer excited me as he did the writing for films such as The Bourne Ultimatum, Contagion, Side Effects and the upcoming James Bond film.
For any fans of those films, this one is another strong addition to his résumé.
What made this political drama highly engaging, wickedly smart and witty and frenetic in its pacing, is the writing. It was almost Aaron Sorkin-esque.
Adam Driver is solid and very believable as the lead. While his character may be career driven, there were some nice moments of dry humor that contained clever put-downs on a couple of pop culture references to give him that rootable quality.
Everyone else was playing their parts well. They weren't exceptional. But they helped enhance the story and kept it moving along at a flowing pace. Annette Benning was as good as ever, Jon Hamm was perfectly fine despite not a lot of screen time and it was nice to see Michael C. Hall and Ted Levine be part of this project.
One aspect that was a brave choice was the multiple moments of jumping around the timeline of this story. Amazingly, they managed to make it work. I never felt lost in where we were, which was unusual as it usually ruins the pacing if the film.
I was glad to find myself really enjoying this in the end. The story is quite extraordinary and the way it's executed on screen made it easy to understand, whilst still making it entertaining.
I felt it was thorough in its detail in the story, I never felt confused by the politics around it and I feel it's pretty accessible if people give time for it.
Rating: 8/10
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