Astounding Performance

Rating: 9/10 (24 November 2015)

Just about everything great about this film.
It's been said a 1000 times but Gyllenhaal shows he's a masterful actor. Now he had some very good material to work from but this is one of the rare times that the performance exceeded what was written. Completely original and masterful. Should have won the Oscar.
(Doesn't help the actor playing his assistant, who was also very good but was overshadowed.)
The element that bothered me was the perfect storm to launch the character's success. Realistically most news outlets don't do blatant blood as depicted in this film. But the character easily finds the perfect outlet for his work in Rene Russo's character.
But once that was realized, the story was engaging and fascinating.