Breaking News: The Post is Broken

The Post was based on true events that occurred in 1971, but the movie left a sour taste rather than the thrilling tale the trailers painted it out to be. All of the hype the trailers gave it was deceptive and blatantly wrong.

It starts off in Vietnam in the year 1966 and introduces characters that are never seen again nor mentioned. We are then thrown five years later and into a chaotic and confusing situation featuring Kay Graham, played by Meryl Streep. In the synopsis of the movie it describes Kay Graham as a female journalist when she only owned the Washington Post which she inherited from her father. While being a female owner and publisher of a newspaper company in the 1970’s is a feat in and of itself, Kay didn’t do anything of much importance besides giving the go ahead to publish the Vietnam papers.

Her character is introduced in her office having a heated conversation over the phone, then she leaves to meet a friend at a restaurant. Ben Bradlee, played by Tom Hanks, is introduced and he has some witty banter with Kay Graham before the mood quickly becomes argumentative.

Ben Bradlee was a complex character that you hate to love shrouded in mystery with a habit of unpredictability. Tom Hanks does extraordinary acting in a mediocre movie. He conveys the character’s emotions very well and makes sure he can keep the character as spontaneous as possible.

Throughout the movie several other characters were either too unimportant to pay attention to or were introduced but we were not told who was whom.

Thirty minutes into the movie the actual plot was finally revealed, although most of the movie was about the New York Times. In one particular scene that was supposed to be crucial it was extremely fast paced and because of this the camera shook so much it was enough to give the audience a headache, and made the scene hard to follow. The last thirty minutes of the movie finally arrived and it breezes by much too quickly. It included: the Washington Post publishing the Vietnam War secrets, the Post being put on trial, and winning the trial.

The Post is a lackluster movie with a constant change in pace and introduction to unimportant characters with no real meaning. The plot is hard to follow and the deception of the trailers made it seem more interesting than it really was.