The Independent

I'm not even eight minutes into this movie, and they've given John Cena some kind of soliloquy as a presidential candidate. His smirky face and is absolutely horrible delivery of lines makes me want to turn this movie off right away. John Cena is a horrible actor.

He's actually good in the wrestling ring when he delivers what they call "promos" in the wrestling world. He has passion, grit, and what he calls "ruthless aggression:. It makes for good TV and good face against heel tension. But as an actor in any movie I've seen him in, it's been a disaster. He's not even good at action movies. The only movie I ever liked him in was Amy's Schumer's Trainwreck. That's because Judd Apatow cast him correctly for comic relief of an empty headed muscleman.

Talented young Journalist Eli James uncovers an Earth shattering truth about

For a so called thriller, this really did lack one element, thrills. From the outset it seemed as though it was going to be a slick, fast paced thriller full of subterfuge and intrigue, sadly it was just boring.

I wasn't keen on the production of this film, it looked and felt a little cheap, like a made for TV thriller that ends up showing on a Sunday afternoon slot some time in April.

I stuck it out until the end, hoping for it to get better, and wanting it to get better, personally I think it flatlined quite early on, and never sparked into anything.

Brian Cox has always been a good actor, and he did a good job, albeit within the confines of the script. If I'm honest, I watched this primarily because I wanted to see how good Jodie Turner Smith was following on from the ill fated Anne Boleyn series. I thought Jodie was ok, again hampered by the average script.

4/10.

A driven young journalist digs into an important but mundane matter of underfunded school budgets and finds herself with the corruption scoop of the decade, going right to the heart of the presidential election campaign. Do not worry, I have not spoiled the film. This is all within the first ten or so minutes.

What plays out after is, unfortunately, not the tight, high-stakes, intelligent journalism thriller one might have expected from someone who spent significant time with an inside view of the political world during the Obama campaign, but a sleepy, phoned-in drama where critical plot points come about by people making obvious and out-of-character mistakes, not because they follow from the events or character psychology, but because the plot needs specific things to happen. After a promising start with appearances from actors with an excellent track record in the genre, the film dozes off into half sleep.

Brian Cox does what he can with a character that never gets much development beyond the cliché of the jaded old hand with rough edges (with a signature order of a steak cooked not just rare, but bloody) who grudgingly becomes the mentor of the plucky young talent. Timothy Busfield is wasted in a minor role with very little screen time.

The shining exception is Jodie Turner-Smith in the lead role, who manages to infuse her character with a lot more complexity than the manuscript provides for. Her Eli is simultaneously a hungry and intelligent young journalist with a reckless streak, and green, a little out of her depth, and believably vulnerable. It is just a shame she is stuck in a film that does not repay her efforts.

In the end, The Independent becomes a sleepy and forgettable repetition of plot ideas we have seen before and a reminder that we live in a political climate where truth is once more much stranger than fiction.

Not sure why this is getting so much hate in the reviews on here. It's a clever little political thriller with enough twists to keep you interested. It's well acted - Brian Cox is always great and John Cena shows yet another side to his expanding acting range - he's just getting better and better with everything he's in. (Not sure Peacemaker can be topped for sheer brilliance though).

Jodie Turner Smith starts off a little wooden but grows into the role as the film goes on, though this may well simply be the journey that her character is on, growing in knowledge and confidence over the course of the film.

An enjoyable and diverting movie, great stuff.

Set in the months leading up to the 2024 United States presidential election, Olympic Gold Medalist Nate Sterling (John Cena) against all odds has become a viable candidate running as an Independent against the two political parties. At newspaper The Washington Chronicle, reporter Elisha "Eli" James (Jodie Turner-Smith) is researching a dip in lotto jackpots despite jackpots typically increasing during a recession. As Eli looks further into the anomaly, she finds connections in the accounting of the corporation managing the lottery with a super PAC working on behalf of Republican Senator and presidential hopeful Patricia Turnbull (Ann Dowd). Eli teams up with veteran columnist Nick Booker (Brian Cox) and the two set out to uncover a far-reaching conspiracy.

The Independent is a political thriller written by Evan Parter, and the feature directing debut of Amy Rice who'd previously served as a staff writer on Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom and has some experiencing operating in the political arena having co-directed the 2009 documentary By the People: The Election of Barack Obama. Parter's script appeared on the 2013 Blacklist of best unproduced screenplays, but it wasn't until 2020 when the film was announced with Amy Rice directing and Kumali Najiani slated to play the lead until he dropped out with Jodie Turner-Smith taking over. Now dropping on Peacock a week before election night in the United States, I'm unfortunately disappointed to say despite proven talent on and behind the camera, The Independent is rather safe and ordinary.

To start off on a good note, the movie is well made with Amy Rice's direction eliciting some solid thrills and performances from her cast. Jodie Turner-Smith is solid as journalist Eli even if the script does occasionally call for her to make some pretty boneheaded decisions at points in the story. Brian Cox is also good as Eli's mentor/partner Nick Booker whose very much an old school journalist in both integrity and ethics and he's established as being something of a "man out of time" with how he plans to soon retire and he's quite good in the role. The biggest surprise however was in John Cena playing political candidate Nate Sterling and despite Cena more known for action oriented or comedic parts, he does pretty well playing a charismatic "outsider" politician thanks in no small part to Cena's inherent charisma so it works pretty well for what it's doing.

I think where the movie faulters however is in the core of this story because despite The Independent taking place in the "here and now" of American politics, it also feels oddly divorced from it as if the script is still operating in the years of 2010-2012. While there are some references to current events like fake news, conspiracy theories, and 1/6, the movie doesn't feel reflective of the current political landscape especially when you have candidates who've openly spouted or endorsed Q nonsense. The movie has a very wishy washy take on politics never really taking any sort of stance on it down to the fact the reveal of the conspiracy is apolitical in nature. The Independent feels like the kind of movie that should've come out around the same time as something like Rendition, State of Play, or Green Zone and that kind of narrative while still there isn't really at the forefront of the American political anymore due to the rise of extremists beliefs and conspiracy theories becoming more mainstreamed.

The Independent despite a topic premise and release date a mere week out from the election is well made and well-acted, but at its core it's a very generic conspiracy thriller that's completely divorced from the American political scene in which it sets itself. Instead of making commentary on real world political hysteria, The Independent creates an easy out for itself that leaves it a pretty toothless affair albeit one that's not poorly made or badly acted.