'The Independent' Review: Political Drama Plays More Like A Failed Pilot Than A Feature Film
© TheWrap The IndependentThe script for Independents, a political thriller with several twists and turns, was blacklisted about 10 years ago as an unimaginative script but received good attention.
Because it's a very relevant plot revolving around the presidential election, screenwriter Evan Porter must rewrite it significantly to fit the current political landscape; The basic structure is solid enough and the characters are well cast, but all the dialogue has the kind of hyperbolic plot twists you'd only see in crime TV shows.
The opening scene of The Independents puts us in the middle of a drama involving third-party presidential candidate Nate Sterling (John Cena), and we're expected to absorb a lot of information in a very short amount of time. This opening scene is so convoluted that it feels like the film's climax was carelessly moved to the beginning - and it's only when we return to this scene about an hour and a half later, when it finally makes a lot more sense. .
There's a flashback to the story's true beginnings at The Washington Chronicle, a failed newspaper whose owners, seeking clicks rather than investigative journalism, bought it after star columnist Nick Booker (Brian Cox). At a story idea meeting, newcomer Elisha (Jodie Turner-Smith) tries to pass on a public school funding story from her boss and eventually realizes that her story has important political implications.
Booker takes Elisha into his care and takes her to a real restaurant in Washington, DC, where they meet Republican presidential candidate Patricia Turnbull (Anne Dowd). When Elisha met Turnbull and asked his opinion on the new third party candidate, Turnbull Dowd replied: "Not for the record, Mr Stirling is swimming with a shark and he can't carry a cage!"
Many actors in The Independent tried to make such live dialogue believable, and only Cox managed it without difficulty. Cox's lines are so brilliant that at times he sounds like John Huston, and when he roars with rage, it's clear that he's graduated with respect from Laurence Olivier's roar. The rhythm of his voice is so authentic and shows that often the words he says are more important than the meaning, all to the benefit of the words he delivers here.
The Independent talks about what the 2024 presidential election will look like and makes specific references to our recent past, but the Democratic candidate is not Joe Biden and we treat it as a fictional male Democratic candidate. The film was briefly debated between the three candidates. About an hour in, The Independents has a plot twist involving the nominees, which isn't too surprising, but creates more drama as the film nears its trickier and less believable ending.
Hidden in the Independents is a short family drama where Elisha deals with his parents and his father's illness. These scenes are better than anything else in the film because Turner-Smith is able to act something realistic without being over-the-top and plot-driven; They also gave the film some soul that it badly needed. A scene in which Elisha talks to her parents, in which director Amy Rice ("Broadway Rebellion") cuts to silent shots of Elisha's mother, played by Kesha Lewis ("The Blacklist"), in which Lewis reveals a life of love, warmth, pain, and Resilience in this big picture.
It's the best scene in the film because it's not tied to the plot and doesn't rely on fancy plot dialogue that makes The Independent more of a failed TV pilot than a compelling political film. Thriller
The Independent premieres at the Peacock on November 2.
