An Interesting Story That Stumbles A Bit At The End

Rating: 6/10 (11 March 2010)

Not so much a political thriller, this movie (and the book on which it's based) serves as an excellent introduction for the viewer to the inside workings of investigative journalism, as Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein struggle to put together the pieces of the Watergate break-in, and get led progressively higher and higher into the members of Richard Nixon's administration. It's truly fascinating to watch the scandal as it unfolds from a minor and puzzling break-in to a major political scandal implicating the White House itself. There's a good study of the initial suspicion of Woodward and Berstein toward each other, which quickly evolves into them working as a team, a good look at the battle within the Post itself about how far to go with the story, and a revolving door of possible contacts and sources, all of whom try to weasel out of saying anything concrete for the record.
Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman put on very strong performances as Woodward and Bernstein respectively, and were totally convincing in the roles. Remember that this movie doesn't focus on the scandal itself but on the investigation into the scandal, so it lacks any sustained "excitement" but certainly comes across as extremely interesting. I thought the ending was too abrupt. We basically get to the point of Woodward and Bernstein implicating Nixon's chief of staff Bob Haldemand in the scandal, and then to Nixon's second inauguration, after which the fates of all the major players (including Nixon himself) are relayed as headlines coming across on a teletype machine. To me, that represented a weakness. There was surely far more investigative journalism over the next year and a half as the scandal that led eventually to Nixon's resignation was fleshed out. So, the ending stumbled a bit. Still, it's enjoyable and interesting. 6/10