Good political thrillers demand sharp wits from filmmakers and audience alike, and here's a case in point: a competent, complex, and all too plausible fiction exposing the invisible machine at work behind top-level government affairs, set in England but perhaps even more relevant to audiences on this side of the Atlantic. Gabriel Byrne stars as an ambitious Fleet Street reporter following another unremarkable Ministry sex scandal, who finds his life in sudden jeopardy when his investigation begins to touch on some highly sensitive matters of national security. The scenario combines all the best elements of investigative journalism with the worst aspects of Realpolitik expediency: treachery, paranoia, and corruption (in short, all the things that make governments work). The atmosphere is sinister and the plotting appropriately elliptical (but never too hard to follow); only the sudden, downbeat ending looks artificial.
Review of Defense of the Realm
