Kill The Messenger (2014) Directed by Michael Cuesta. Starring: Jeremy Renner, Robert Patrick, Jena Sims. IMDB says: “A reporter becomes the target of a vicious smear campaign that drives him to the point of suicide after he exposes the CIA’s role in arming Contra rebels in Nicaragua and importing cocaine into California. Based on the true story of journalist Gary Webb.”
I love a good conspiracy theory but an actual government cover up? That’s something to talk about. Kill The Messenger is as titillating as it is alarming, focusing on an inflammatory and important American story that has remained largely in the shadows. The reason why might not shock you but should serve as an always crucial reminder to question the media.
The based-on-a-true-story follows Gary Webb, a journalist at the San Jose Mercury News that spends his time balancing his career and family. After receiving a truly remarkable tip off, Gary learns that the U.S. Government may have been involved in bringing large amounts of drugs into the country for known distribution. It’s a story that Gary feels must be told so he treads down a path to uncover the whole truth. Along the way, the film focuses first on the people determined to silence Gary and then later on those that will do whatever they can to discredit him. It’s a Gary Webb vs. the World story that while bordering on some tricky levels of accuracy is more so let down by the decision to also heavily incorporate Webb’s home life.
A huge portion of the film chooses to focus on how Gary is just a guy, with a family and problems. I get that. If you put anyone’s life under a microscope you’re going to see the germs. Gary is an average joe. The issue is that all of these scenes are so uninteresting and distracting. There is a thread of some previous infidelity and the threat of Gary’s oldest son dealing with his father’s past discrepancies but YAAWWWNNN. I’m sorry, that was a little mean-spirited but everything in Gary’s home life struggle is boring and not effective. The more clichéd elements of the script resonate the strongest here as well where lines like “I’m not mad at you I’m just disappointed” are delivered to the kind of response you’d expect. The family seems sympathetic enough but never has the chemistry to make you care.
On the whole, the acting is solid in the film. Renner as Gary is the star and holds it together. His wife played by Rosemarie DeWitt was intensely off-putting to me. I couldn’t decipher if it was DeWitt or the script so I just sort of landed on blaming both. Again, the rest of the family remains superfluous but the movie is packed with amazing super small performances including…wait for the name drop… Robert Patrick, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Paz Vega, Tim Blake Nelson, Michael Kenneth Williams, Oliver Platt, Andy Garcia, Michael Sheen, Richard Schiff and Ray Liotta. Yeah, they’re all here.
But as I said earlier, the true story behind this movie is its saving grace. Not only did I not even know about this incident but I was also surprised to learn how the media was able to navigate it. One of the biggest points the movie is trying to emphasize is how the media handles narrative. After Gary’s story broke, the rest of the national news went on the defensive and decided that instead of investigating the events further, they would investigate Gary. This is still pertinent in today’s media climate evidenced by the Julian Assange and Edward Snowden information leaks. When Webb’s story broke it was at the dawn of the internet age where information was only just being circulated on the forum. Today, the general public has unlimited access to so much information that the media has to work extra hard to thwart opposing opinions and push agendas. Right now we have the capacity to live in the most transparent news decade ever but still remain completely muddled thanks to the thousands of ways we receive our information.
Kill The Messenger is not a great film but it is provocative and worthwhile. If nothing else, it will leave you with a lot of ideas to chew on and hopefully invigorate your desire to find out the truth.
