Dirty Laundry

Rating: Null/10 (2 November 2003)

As the summary-titled song would imply, this film is about finding the story to shock the world. Robert Downey, Jr. in Natural Born Killers ringing any bells? No, I guess that link needs some embellishing. Journalism is one of those careers where taking extra risks can get you killed, but getting noticed for those risks is minimal to non-existent. Films like Salvador, We Were Soldiers, and every other superhero movie are proficient in falsifying that point.
Spoilers.
The rundown of All the President's Men is that there is no villain. No defined opposition other than the ever mentioned CREEP exists to threaten Woodward and Bernstein. So we are stuck with their editor for a nemesis, but he's supposed to be on their side, right?
That said, W&B themselves are perpendicular in their workings. Hoffman is constantly trying to "be" someone other than himself. Redford is always himself and never getting into the work. Talk about shallow. Newman had the same problem until lately. These conflicting styles are dynamic in the story sense, but the fact that the men are celebrated brings questions to mind. Namely, if held for libel, who would get sued?
Overall, some points (namely the sound and editing) are noteworthy. The rest is the kind of stuff we've seen since Seven Days in May and the Manchurian Candidate. 3 out of 5 stars.