Review of Page Eight (2011) by Walter M — 18 Nov 2012

"Page Eight" opens with Johnny Worricker(Bill Nighy) coming to the rescue of Nancy(Rachel Weisz), his hitherto unknown next door neighbor, when she has second thoughts about bringing home Ralph Wilson(Tom Hughes) with her. In the resultant conversation, Johnny is hesitant to give up details of his own life which is only reasonable considering he is an analyst at MI5 where he has been given a file to study by his boss and former school chum Benedict Baron(Michael Gambon) and also to their colleague Jill Tankard(Judy Davis). Anthea Catcheside(Saskia Reeves), the home secretary, seeing the explosiveness of a detail that Johnny pointed out, decides to sit on the file for a day or two before possibly going public. In the meantime, Johnny performs the duties of a father by visiting the opening of his daughter Julianne's(Felicity Jones) art show.

First and foremost, "Page Eight" has a tremendous cast that also includes Alice Krige, Ewen Bremmer and Ralph Fiennes, headlined by Nighy at his droll and understated best. So, while you could have possibly stopped just at him, Gambon and Davis playing pinochle and still had an entertaining movie, there is quite a lot going on here, some of which is sadly overstated, most involving the collision of politics and intelligence gathering and why the two should never meet. Throughout, the movie smartly details the changing of the guard in Great Britain, not only in the ruling class but in how we all lead our lives(Resisting the urge is Johnny and notice how slowly his own personal history becomes known and how much his daughter is like him), willingly surrendering our privacy at the first opportunity while governments are becoming more secretive, unaware of the dictum that the truth will set you free.