The Post

Directed by Stephen Spielberg and starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks – it’s the stuff of Oscar nominations! And to be sure, it’s an elegant film with impeccable performances telling an historical story that is very relevant today. In short, it is utterly…adequate.

In what could be considered a prequel to All The Presidents Men – the landmark film that dealt with the Watergate scandal – The Post centres on the newsroom tumult at the Washington Post after discovery of The Pentagon Papers, confidential documents that reveal government deception around the Vietnam War.

Streep plays Katherine Graham who became the first ever female publisher after reluctantly inheriting The Washington Post. Graham is a socialite who feels awkward and intimidated in the male dominated world of newsprint. Hanks is the ink-in-the-veins editor, empathetic, principled, but a newsman through and through.

It has a first rate supporting cast, impressive cinematic sequences and some delightful, quirky scenes, but the tension is a little lacking.

It’s a very good film, if not a great film, but certainly worth seeing if only for it’s parallel to current White House shenanigans.

★★★

Reviewed by Rita Bratovich