Based on the true (well, mostly so) reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in the early '70's that brought down the Nixon presidency, its facts are so well known that any embellishment of the story was impossible. Which is fine. As a retelling of what Woodward and Bernstein went through to reveal the diverted campaign funds that were funneled to an outfit set up to undermine Nixon's political enemies through both legal and illegal means and within full knowledge of the White House itself, the film delivers.
What it doesn't deliver is any thrills or base entertainment. If you want to see people intently flipping through a phone book, dialing a telephone or knocking on people's doors, then this is your movie.
I, for one, ask a bit more out of my entertainment than viewing the menial tasks of an officeworker--no matter how earthshattering that officeworker's end result may be.
Redfor and Hoffman are adequate here--but really there isn't a lot of ebb and flow to the emotion nor action to be dealt with.
Its a flat line of a film. One that solidly records an extremely important portion of recent American history and the men who had the intelligence and bravery to bring the governments ugly inner workings to light. Its just not great entertainment or likely to arouse intellectual curiosity. Save this one for journalism 101 only.
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