casablancavic This has now entered into one of the best films I've ever seen.With an a very well constructed story, very strong dialogue, fantastic casting and great performances.This film is exceedingly important and plays an integral part on so many levels.The reviewers who claimed the ending was flawed certainly missed the entire scope of the story...in-fact, the ending made it more important than if it had been an inside government leak.This movie surpasses almost every other movie about government corruption and conspiracy and does so with conviction and skilled story telling and brilliant performances from everybody on every level.I'm glad that there are people who have the principles to stand up to this kind of pressure to protect others beliefs, rights and identities, without thinking of how it may place themselves in danger.

Coletha Albert I thought this was a great movie to watch on Mother's Day. A working mother being separated from her little boy for her principles. I watched this story unfurl by today's standards. The unfurling is very timid. Even for 2008 this movie is very mild. The son never told the mother, "I hate you!"...I mean, is that realistic for our times? I don't think so. The husband cheating is typical yet the attorney (Alan Alda) very unbelievable, in my opinion. The prosecuting attorney was a horror, translation: a great actor. I am sorry that this movie never made it to Seattle and it took me this long to see it. This role for Kate Beckinsale is her standard role; very sweet, good Samaritan who suffers while doing the right thing because she cares... Even in Blade,she was a great daughter fighting for the cause...She never plays a villain that I know of.Spoiler: She does have a source that she is protecting. That source is her son's little friend from school, unbelievable yet strangely very real. She could not reveal her source, it wasn't a choice. She would have been laughed out of the Grand Jury and her reputation would be ruined forever. So, it's not that her principles were so stellar - she could not tell no matter what. So, she went to jail. She was no hero. She was an ambitious human who would take data even from a child if it led to her winning a Pulitzer and to hell with an ex-agent dying and her son being separated from her AND her marriage going down the drain. Did I mention that the Sun Times her employer had to pay a fine of $10K for every day the reporter stayed in jail? That meant nothing to her. Let everyone else pay and think what they like only she and an elementary student knew the truth.I rated this film a 10 because this film NAILED human nature to the tee: the motive behind what people are doing is never what you think...

juneebuggy I'm not generally one for the political thrillers but this was pretty good. I was engrossed enough to find myself frustrated by 'Rachel's' decisions and the story is definitely thought provoking, with Kate Beckinsale playing a principled investigative journalist in Washington DC who writes a story that outs a CIA operative and winds up going to jail for not revealing her source.There's an excellent cast attached here(Alan Alda, Angela Bassett, David Schwimmer, Matt Dillon, Noah Wyle, Vera Farmiga) all giving good performances and the ending provided a twist that totally surprised me and explained why she couldn't give up her source, because all along I'd been thinking; you're losing everything, your marriage, son, career and nobody cares anymore what for. Why don't you just give up the damn source? It's not worth all this. 03.18.14

SnoopyStyle After a Presidential assassination attempt, he orders an attack against Venezuela. Columnist Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale) writes that the President ignored CIA operative Erica Van Doren (Vera Farmiga) when ordering the attack. The media descends on Erica and her life is turned upside down. The government moves to force Rachel to name her secret source. She refuses and is jailed for contempt.Of course, it's a ripped-from-the-headlines kind of story. They make sure to say that this is fictional. Writer/director Rod Lurie does a reasonable job but this has a bit too much TV movie feel. Maybe he should have not copied so much from the headlines. There are big enough actors involved but it needs big cinematic flourishes. I won't give any spoilers, but I do love the big reveal at the end.