Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Nancy and Ronald Reagan and John Kerry are all featured in Kill the Messenger, a taut, fact-based thriller with an apt title. And at its center lies a subversive conspiracy that could only be uncovered with an old-fashioned journalistic investigation.
Michael Cuesta, known primarily for his work on TV's Homeland, directed from a script by Peter Landesman, who, in turn, based his work on nonfiction books by Gary Webb and Nick Schou.
Webb, played here with fierce intensity by Jeremy Renner, worked as a reporter in the mid-1990s for the San Jose Mercury News. Even that short time ago, a journalist for a medium-size paper could chase down the big story, something Webb did — probably to his regret.
Director Cuesta and screenwriter Landesman use their two sources to weave an escalating intrigue, one that pulls in colorfully sleazy characters and one that sends Webb on a soul-destroying mission. One of the film’s strengths lies in the excellent actors filling these supporting roles: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosemarie DeWitt, Michael Sheen, Ray Liotta, Barry Pepper, Oliver Platt.
From virtually nowhere, Webb receives a grand jury transcript that sheds light on a drug-running organization. He uses it as leverage to uncover a layered operation that appears to lead to U.S. government officials.
From one person, he hears a name, which sends him to yet another, and on and on until he ends up talking to a prisoner (Andy Garcia) in a Nicaraguan jail who confirms he was involved with a CIA organization that sold drugs in the United States to fund the Nicaraguan contras (and yes, Oliver North’s name and image pop up). Eventually, Webb also ties in a CIA connection to selling crack cocaine in poor Los Angeles neighborhoods.
Webb predictably fights his bosses and editors to print his story, which they eventually do. The blowback that gives the film its title begins as sources dry up and previous witnesses deny their stories. Webb feels the CIA has executed its clandestine machine to discredit him and his articles.
Cuesta and Renner ably execute a portrait of an obsessed man finding he must pay for his obsession. Webb’s family, his job and his friends all seem distant to him, with his only compulsion being the investigation.
Cuesta puts Renner in almost every frame, turning the film’s focus from its building menace to a penetrating character study. We see Webb succumb to the destructive forces that eventually kill the messenger, as Webb committed suicide in 2004 by shooting himself in the head. Twice.
MOVIE RATING
Kill the Messenger
*** 1/2
Rated R, 112 minutes.
Opens Friday at regional theaters.
