2024, David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water) -- download
Generic thriller and exactly what I wanted, what I needed. And by the director of Hell or High Water!
The elevator pitch is this: a fixer works to assist whistle blowers in their actions against the corporations they wish to unmask. He works in the shadows communicating primarily by "Tri-State Relay Service", a network that allows the deaf, or other such disabled, to communicate to non-disabled by way of operators and TDDs (telecommunication device for the deaf) -- basically he types, the operators speak, and vice versa. The network itself is completely protected, legally, as they keep no records of any calls whatsoever.
Sarah Grant (Lily James, Cinderella) was a researcher working for a bio-firm that made a genetically modified wheat strain which had horrible long term side effects, and the company covered it up. She really didn't want to whistle-blow, she just wanted out, but the company ruined her life anyway. She tried going to a law firm known for dealing with such matters, but they admit they cannot do anything, and put her on to Ash (Riz Ahmed, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), the fixer. His job will be to facilitate the return of the evidence, but require a payment from the corporation as payment for his services and as a statement of their agreement.
We meet Ash, a rightfully paranoid loner with secure lock-ups for his work and a solitary life, but for his AA meetings. The job should be easy enough, but Sarah has noticed the surveillance team watching her apartment, which Ash confirms pretty quickly. As the hand-over becomes more and more complicated by the duplicitous surveillance team led by Dawson (Sam Worthington, Avatar), Ash breaks his own rules by getting to know Sarah better. He's been living a lonely life for so long, when she attempts to get past his rules & barriers with her vulnerability, he gives in.
The fun in the movie is the spy-craft and pacing. This was an excellently paced movie with only a few players, giving us ample time to flip back & forth between the complicated actions and the emotional weight behind it all. Ash is a careful creature of enforced habits and once he starts breaking down his own barriers, I could not help but wonder if he was being played.
Beyond lie spoilers! Read with caution thrown to the wind!
He was being played, but not exactly how I was thinking it was. I had thought Sarah an independent player, perhaps an actual whistle-blower who was manipulated into working with Ash to unmask his operations. But no, she was actually the leader of a counter-fixer-team hired by a previously completed job's corporate overlords. They seek to dismantle Ash's operations and recover their evidence of malfeasance. It takes great effort from Ash to recover from this and turn the tables on them, and return to his lonely but needed work.
This movie looked good, felt good, colour scheme and lighting with the grim colourations and set design chosen often for spy-thrillers. It was tightly paced and characterization was minimal and only the essential used.
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