‘Kill the Messenger,’ a story too good to tell?

“Show me a hero, I’ll write you a tragedy.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Just when we thought we were out of this Reagan era mud pile, they drag us back in.

Jeremy Renner gives us Gary Webb, who was once upon a time a fierce seeker of truth, a journalist Quixote who believed in his quest. Gary was a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, a fringe newspaper dealing with crop disasters, weather, earth quakes and local disputes. But suddenly he got lucky and connected with the biggest political scandal of the ’80s, the beginning of the suspicious connections between the CIA, the war in Nicaragua and the inner city cocaine epidemic. He should have just said no. But heroes never say no.

In 1996, with a lead from one Coral Baca, a drug dealer’s girl friend, (Paz Vega) Webb is invited to sit in on a trial about Nicaraguan drug dealers allegedly working with the CIA. They’re charged with bringing cocaine into Los Angeles African American neighborhoods, to pay for guns for the Contras’ battle with the Nicaragua’s far leftist government.

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In a scene clearly reminiscent of “All The President’s Men,” there is the smooth lawyer (Barry Pepper in a role too small for his large talent) and assorted black-suited visitors advising the alleged drug dealers.

Unsurprisingly, in a “Watergate” moment, the trial fails to convict those being held, and it all disappears into the afternoon sunlight, as the mysterious players vanish into big black cars, a much overplayed visual.

Ms. Baca, with her own interests at stake, slips Webb a secret grand jury transcript that implicates the CIA.

This is the key that Webb hopes will unlock the cell of his small town paper, and get him to the big print. He goes after it like a hungry dog, balancing his hours with unrest at home with this family.

Webb’s wife (the always perfect “put upon wife” Rosemarie DeWitt) is supportive but anxious about the dangers involved.

Webb, who grows hungrier with every detail and suspicious character lurking in the shadows, flies to a Nicaraguan prison, and bribes his way into an interview with a former cocaine king, (a welcome revisit to the great Andy Garcia.)

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Here, the name Oliver “Ollie” North, is dropped. Webb’s ears ring, and he flies up on his small paper’s tab, to Washington to dig deeper, where he is warned by a NSC member that “Some stories are too good to tell.” Webb will eventually discover how true that is.

Of course, the government, feeling the buzz of this small town mosquito around their ears, begins a campaign to annoy and discredit Webb, his story and his paper. Webb is called to a meeting with the CIA in Washington to “clear the air.” Prior to the meeting, he is followed in an underground parking garage by an “innocent looking executive” who appears at the meeting.

Wouldn’t you think that by now, reporters should learn to park on the street?

The pressure leaks into Webb’s marriage and exposes background material on Webb’s past. An affair that resulted in a tragedy is now front page along with other journalistic missteps Webb had tried to bury. The “messenger” is now in the CIA’s cross hairs, top careers are threatened and all the cliches of dozens of political thrillers begin to appear:

What happened to Webb, his career, marriage and that story are now in the public domain, where America’s political door ways full of shadows have long been closed, and mysterious dead-end streets rerouted.

Jeremy Renner is certainly convincing as a wired up, ambitious reporter. He is a ball of fire always counted on to bring energy to supporting roles, as he did making the soft serve Ben Afleck look better in “The Town.” The script by Peter Landesman based on Gary Webb’s book, keeps the ball rolling. All the great pro supporters are well used by director Michael Cuesta, who we are not surprised to learn, directed several episodes of “Homeland.” “Messenger” is a good movie, just not a great one.

J.P. Devine is a former stage and screen actor.


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