If nothing else, this solid, by-numbers political thriller serves as a star-making vehicle for British actor Jodie Turner-Smith, who is nothing short of mesmerising as dogged cub reporter Elisha James. Elisha (or Eli, as she is known) is taken under the wing of Brian Cox’s grizzled veteran columnist at the precarious moment when proper journalism – the fearless, relentless pursuit of the truth, however messy – is under siege. The editor is culling his big-name reporters and exhorting the rest of the staff to “get down in the mud with the pigs” in order to claw back readers and page views.
Against this backdrop, and a behind-the-scenes Washington culture of backhanders and political expediency, the rise of a new, independent voice (John Cena, his affable everyman persona rather undermined by his superhero-sized forearms) in the presidential race seems like good news. But then Eli unearths a story that could rock the entire political landscape.
Some of the picture’s taut focus and pacing are lost to an unnecessary cancer subplot involving Eli’s family; like the journalists it follows, the film works best when it is tenaciously single-minded.
