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.