The Post (2017, PG-13)

This is a film with a good “Oscar narrative.”  Films about journalism has a history of doing well (All the President’s Men, Spotlight,) it has excellent pedigree (Spielberg, Hanks, Streep,) and with a story about government pushback against freedom of the press, it’s incredibly timely in a political year when that’s increasingly important.  However, while it’s a good film, it’s not a stellar one, and it’s reasonable to me that it only received two major Oscar nominations.

In 1971, the Washington Post gets wind that the New York Times has acquired pages from a classified decades-long study on the Vietnam War.  After their first publication, the Times is slapped with an injunction by the Nixon administration.  The Post has a reporter who thinks he knows the source of the leak, and with the Times temporarily barred from printing anything further on the Pentagon Papers, the Post scrambles to get their hands on the documents and publish within their limited window of opportunity.

It’s an interesting story, a classic David-and-Goliath dynamic between the intrepid journalists and the secretive, controlling administration.  The drama is heightened by a clash between editor Ben, ambitious and eager for the paper to stand its ground, and owner Kay, who’s wary of taking big risks when the company is on the verge of going public.  There are clandestine meetings with secret sources, clever journalists combing through mountains of documents, and big speeches on censorship and freedom of the press.  Throw in direction by Steven Spielberg and a slew of strong performances (Tom Hanks as Ben and Meryl Streep as Kay are the heavy hitters, but the film also features Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, and Matthew Rhys,) and all the elements seem right.

However, for me, those elements add up to a movie that feels good instead of excellent.  For one, it’s not long, but it feels long.  While the script has some fine dialogue and a handful of really terrifically-written scenes, the overarching story is written in such a way that it drags when it really shouldn’t.  The structure is just set up kind of weird, and even when compelling things are happening onscreen, I still get the urge to check my watch.  This makes it feel a bit more like “homework viewing,” an issue Oscar films can sometimes have, rather than just watching a great movie.  Honestly, I wouldn’t have been too surprised if Streep’s lead actress nod had been the film’s only major nomination – if it were up to me, I don’t necessarily think I’d have given it a nod for best picture.

Additionally, I’m not a fan of the overall handling of Kay’s story.  There are interesting threads here – as the first female owner of a newspaper, she gets tons of condescending pushback from her all-male board, and she approaches the question of the Pentagon Papers with the full knowledge that the wrong decision could destroy the company her family built.  And in all fairness, there are a few really strong scenes that address these aspects.  Too often, though, the film is content to leave these things on the backburner and frame Kay more as a rather timid, indecisive ogre standing in the way of Ben’s journalistic greatness.  I think it could have been written in a way that gives more weight to Kay’s perspective/experience, and I think the film could have been a lot more interesting for it.

Warnings

Language, drinking/smoking, brief war violence, and thematic elements.