Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House

First Hit: I loved learning more about Mr. Felt because he helped the country from the deceit of a corrupt and lying President.

Mark Felt (Liam Neeson) was a career FBI man. Thirty years he’d worked for the agency as Deputy Assistant to the Director, Herbert Hoover. As Hoover’s right hand man, he saw all the secrets the FBI collected about people.

During the Nixon administration, Nixon feared losing the next election more than anything, therefore he authorized the break-in of the Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate building. When Hoover dies, the White House installs L. Patrick Gray (Marton Csokas)  to run the FBI. He’s a shill for the White House and this infuriates Felt.

The FBI had a history of being separate from the White House and Congress. They held up the rule of law and, as much as possible, were apolitical.

When it appeared that Felt wasn’t going to be made the permanent FBI director, his wife Audrey (Diane Lane) becomes clearly disappointed because, as she explains, set aside her whole life for him and this opportunity and it won’t happen.

As he learns that the Watergate break-in is being buried and covered up, Mark’s patriotic side decides he cannot live with our country being told deceitful lies and telephones the Washington Post with information only he and few others know. One of the things he ensures is that he’s not the only one that knows the information he passes on to the reporters. He becomes, as they name him, Deep Throat.

The film is mostly shot with a dark undertone in its color reflecting the darkness of the times. To add to this darkness, we learn that his daughter Joan (Malika Monroe) walked away from her home never to be heard from again. We never learn why but we know that her mother Audrey wasn’t emotionally available to her.

Neeson is brilliant as Felt. His ability to be emotionlessness towards his work and protect the United States from the corruption in the Presidency was perfect. Lane was excellent as the woman who gave up her life for her husband’s and knew nothing about nurturing her child. Csokas was good as acting FBI director Gray, a man beholding to the president. Peter Landesman wrote and directed this film. I loved the integration of real film footage of the times with this film; it worked very well. The dialogue was wonderfully constructed to create suspense and historical interpretation.

Overall: The film also gave me hope that someone will expose the deceitful ways of our current President.

The Equalizer

First Hit:  Satisfying film with powerful acting by Denzel Washington in a story that has a slow burn buildup to the inevitable.

Robert McCall (Washington) is a quiet mentor to the people he’s around at the home building supply store where he works. He rarely sleeps at night, reads a lot, and has very specific behavior patterns that he uses to keep his life intact.

From the beginning you have the sense that McCall has a history, one of which he’s not proud, one where he was one of the best, and he’s sad without his wife. He shows up to his peers at work by helping them eat right and supports them to live their dreams. He also rights the wrongs to his friends and he does this with cool calculation.

You see early on he’s an expert at killing and making things right. He gets into a conflict with the Russian mob through late night café meetings with Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz) who wants to be a singer but works as a prostitute to some hardened Russians. When they hurt her, McCall becomes the man who will right this wrong all the way to the top.

His main protagonist Teddy (Marton Csokas) is good for this film as he is as self-assured as McCall is competent. They are a good matchup and the way this film delivers this adversarial relationship is great.

Washington is so clearly perfect in this role. I cannot think of another actor that could have pulled this off as well as he did. Moretz is excellent as the girl who portrays both protective strength and childlike vulnerability. Marton Csokas was perfect as the Russian mob enforcer and guy that fixes problems for the head of the gang. David Harbour (as corrupt policeman, Masters) does a good job of being a hard ass corrupt jerk. Richard Wenk and Michael Sloan wrote a very strong script that allowed us to know Washington’s character not through words but through actions. Antoine Fuqua did an excellent job of directing this action film. My only criticism of this film from a director’s point of view is that it was a little long.

Overall:  Although long, I enjoyed and was totally engaged with this film.

The Debt

First Hit: This is a film about how important it is to live the truth.

The film flashes between 1966 and 1997 with ease. Not many films do this without some jarring of the senses and story logic but the direction by Jon Madden on the screenplay by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman was superb.

Rachel Singer (played by both Jessica Chastain and Helen Mirren), Stephen Gold (played by Marton Csokas and Tom Wilkinson) and David Peretz (played by Sam Worthington and Ciaran Hinds) are sent to find Doktor Bernhardt (played by Jesper Christensen) who was a Nazi surgeon that experimented on people in WWII.

The Jewish Israeli government sent these three to East Berlin to capture him and bring him back to Israel to try him for war crimes. In 1997’s time, Rachel and Stephen’s daughter Sarah (played by Romi Aboulafia) has just published a book on this attempt to critical acclaim, but something is brewing.

As the story goes back and forth between the two times zones, we slowly begin to figure out the real story and why there is such deep sadness and fear in the main characters.

The strength of this film is the strength it gains through interlocking segues between time, the story line, and the truth.

Chastain showed strength and mettle in her wonderful portrayal of young Singer. Mirren was extraordinary as the older Singer. Csokas was overtly powerful as young Gold while Wilkinson carried this strength pointedly as older Gold. Worthington was immensely focused and sublime as the single minded Peretz and Ciaran had minimal presence as the older Peretz. Christensen commanded screen presence as the powerful and brutish Nazi surgeon. Aboulafia was very good as Sarah. Vaughn and Goldman wrote an outstanding script. Madden wove this immensely powerful story with an adroit hand and understanding of how to create a logical and comprehensive story spanning 30 years.

Overall: A powerful film which was well made.