(3.5 / 5)
Former top U.S. security adviser Elizabeth “Libby” Lamm is threatened by associates from her dark past including Rachel Burke, a steely, commanding politician with an unwavering knack for achieving her goals. Colluding with Rachel is Adrian, an unyielding, patriotic chief of staff. Martin harbors another type of obsession with Libby in this story of betrayal and regret.
I admit that I was lost for the first 25 minutes of the film because like all stories concerning white house officials, you always have to get through so much government language to find out who everyone is and why they are important to the story. As the movie progressed, I discovered that Elizabeth “Libby” Lamm (Tika Sumpter), was an Ex-Security Advisor who played a major role in a bombing that killed a massive amount of innocent people. Years later, Libby, still haunted by the incident, decides to document the whole entire operation in notebooks she keeps locked away in a bedroom safe. Because Libby had expressed deep remorse to one of her associates, Rachel (Jamie Lee Curtis), Libby must watch her back, as she is seen as a potential threat in exposing the government.
The film takes off when it is revealed that a student in her class by the name of Martin (Ben Tavassoli), has been tracking her involvement with the attack for years. His family was killed in the bombing and this is the catalyst for him breaking into her home and finally confronting her about her participation in the tragedy. When Libby sees that Martin is not there to hurt her, she accounts all of the details leading up to the bombing. The twist in the movie is that Martin become Libby’s ally, helping her to get all of her written details she keeps in a bunch of notebooks, to her father Phillip Lamm (Clarke Peters), who is the editor of a large publication.
Being tracked by her former associates, Libby has to trust Martin to deliver the notebooks himself. Finally, Martin does meet Phillip Lamm, along with the notebooks but what happens next is shocking!
I liked this movie but it took too long for me to find out who Libby was and what her involvement was with this bombing. Martin’s character gave it a bit of a twist, I loved how they ended up working together; that was unexpected. There were some characters that just didn’t fit for me like Martin’s roommate Jordan (Alex Weisman). He ended up being an important part of the story towards the end but I feel most of his scenes, in the beginning, could have been cut out completely. Overall, a good film but I wouldn’t rush to see it.
In theaters and On-Demand January 18th, 2019
