Page Eight by David Hare - Nine out of 10

Page Eight by David Hare

Nine out of 10

It may seem that the premise of Page Eight is rather superfluous, especially in the age of the ‘stable genius, with an unmatched great wisdom, the greatest president ever’, who is embracing enemies like Putin, over his own intelligence services, abandons the Kurds and any other ally he fancies, extorts the Ukraine, keeping vital military aid blocked, until they investigate his potential political rival.

After all, what is knowing about the existence of some hidden jails – at least one of which the rumor is that it was placed in our own land, perhaps nearby – where some awful – or maybe innocent – jihadists would be detained, water boarded and otherwise tortured, compared with all of the above and other abhorrent acts and statements that the idiot in the White house commits or utters on a daily basis – 14,000 lies have been documented so far, from the beginning of a shameful presidency – from ludicrous, preposterous modifications of weather maps (!), to serious, ghastly declarations of…love for murderous tyrants like Kim of North Korea and others.

Bill Nighy is marvelous as Johnny Worricker, a MI5 officer with a long employment at the spy agency, who is a good friend of the director, Benedict Baron aka the fabulous Michael Gambon and the two even share the same wife, admittedly, first married to the hero and then, after separation, to the leader of the reputed spying outfit.

Felicity Jones is charming as Julianne Worricker, the daughter of the spy, a talented artist with a penchant for sad, dark art, the father is somewhat worried and harsh in the appreciation of her work, emphasizing that it either proclaims, cries out in despair or, it rather flaunting - or some other emotion is invoked – if it does not describe a real inner state of mind or spirit…

The artist is pregnant and for a while her father is very concerned that the father might be Ralph Wilson, an individual that is involved in nefarious activities, he approaches Nancy Pierpan aka Rachel Weisz, the neighbor of the MI5 man, with the intention of getting to Johnny Worricker.

Nancy Pierpan has had a good share of trauma and sorrow, for her brother has died in the Occupied Territories and the suspicion – actually it is much more than a suspicion – points towards the Israeli Army and the grieving sister wants to know the truth…perhaps the agent may help her.

The private life of the spy is not that of a role model – indeed, it may remind one of Spy Game, where Nathan Muir aka Robert Redford has been married four times – since he has been through a few marriages, breakups – he admits that he is not good at relationships to his neighbor , but we can think of James bond, Jason Bourne and others and consider the intensity, stressful, agitated life of an agent and see that it does not offer the ‘normal’ conditions for marital bliss.

Benedict Baron organizes a meeting with the Home Secretary, Anthea Catcheside, other officials in the agency, such as Jill Tankard, and he puts on the table an explosive file – albeit, this is so feeble when we think of the headlines of these days, with Impeachment, an idiot ready to sell his country to Russia, for personal benefit, which is clearly all that he cares for, he has pulled out of the alliance with the Kurds, not caring that Putin would gain so much, the FBI, CIA and others have found and documented the inference in the 2016 elections, but the orange cretin keeps chasing debunked conspiracy theories and the list is without end.

The prime minister, Alec Beasly aka fearsome Ralph Fiennes, seems to have known about the existence of illegal detention centers – black boxes – on the territory of some NATO allies, from Eastern Europe it seems, and he has not shared this information with cabinet, the intelligence community…indeed, he had not said anything to anybody, showing a contemptuous distrust and when Benedict Baron finds about this though a source, he brings it to the attention of the Home Secretary, his main ally and find, Worricker, and he thinks that this is so incriminating that action is required.

Alas, he dies soon and there is speculation as to how much he knew about this, and once he has departed, it is up to the hero to continue with it, although the Prime Minister would soon press him on the matter of the file, he would use a parallel, illegal investigation led under cover by Jill Tankard, and the name of the motion picture refers to the Page Eight of this crucial record, where it is in black and white – the prime minister knew about the black boxes and has kept all this to himself.

Meanwhile, Johnny Worricker endeavors to find the truth about the brother of his gentle, grieving, kind neighbor and furthermore, to provide documents to prove the truth, once it is found…between the agent and the sad woman a relationship appears to blossom, although the more modest version of the better known James Bond explains that he has been very unsuccessful as a partner….

Even if not overwhelming, Page Eight is propelled by the performance of Bill Nighy, nominated for a Golden Globe for this role, and the other superb members of the cast…