Reality
Sydney Sweeney is on terrific form as the whistleblower Reality Winner in Tina Satter’s docudrama based on her own play.
Sydney Sweeney
In recent years, it has become by no means uncommon to find theatres presenting works in which all the words spoken come from verbatim transcriptions of some documented real-life happening. One such piece was the National Theatre production of Alecky Blythe’s London Road which was brought to the screen by Rufus Norris in 2015, but it was an atypical example in that the authentic words became the basis of a work which, while totally serious at heart, was presented in the form of a musical. Now we have a more typical example of the genre in Reality, an American film which finds the stage artist and playwright Tina Satter directing for the screen an adaptation of her own play about the interrogation of Reality Winner by the FBI in her own home on 3rd June 2017.
Although Winner's story may be more widely known in America than in Britain, it seems likely that relatively few viewers will go to see Reality unaware of the fact that Winner, a former member of the U.S. Air Force, was a translator for the National Security Agency accused of being a whistleblower for having leaked a classified intelligence report about Russia's interference in the American election of 2016. As was done on stage, Satter concentrates on the events of that one day when Reality (Sydney Sweeney) was questioned by two FBI agents, Garrick (Josh Hamilton) and Taylor (Marchánt Davis) and then taken into custody. Despite Satter being new to cinema, this film is very competently made and it is notable for the quality of the acting. It is virtually a three-hander with the other figures present only in the background but, rather than feeling in any way theatrical, the film finds Sweeney, Hamilton and Davis playing in a wholly naturalistic style and doing so with absolute conviction.
In some quarters Reality has met with huge acclaim suggesting that it may well be one of the finest films of the year. If I find that surprising it is due entirely to the nature of the material which strikes me as being of somewhat limited interest. The authenticity of the piece is clearly the keynote here and the film is at pains to stress that its only sources are the FBI transcription and the audio taken by them at the time. By acting this out the film brings home to us how different the actuality can be from what a dramatist would give us – small talk, Reality’s concerns about her pets (a dog and a cat) and even recorded coughs are included here. Ironically, though, the extent to which the film itself stresses its authenticity raises issues. It could have asked us to take it on trust with a simple declaration as to its sources but, instead, we are repeatedly shown at intervals the written transcript including marked redactions and in addition the audio is referenced directly with indications as to where the screenplay has to some extent condensed the tape. This could be taken as a deliberate reminder that any work of this type nevertheless involves personal choices on the part of the person making it. However, the effect is to interrupt the narrative and, in consequence, the sense of authenticity in the re-enactments is disrupted by this extra information supplied from the outside. Similarly, a few brief flashbacks late on illustrating what is being said are an inappropriate extra smacking as they do of a cinematic device.
However, what strikes me as being a major weakness is the decision to concentrate exclusively on this one episode in Reality Winner’s story. It means, for example, that a whole third of the film has passed in minor preliminaries before the FBI agents even reveal the nature of their enquiry or the charge likely to be made (when they turn up at her home Reality believes that their search warrant is connected with a standard security check and she voluntarily agrees to talk to them). If the film’s first half hour largely takes place in front of the house, the ensuing interrogation is done indoors in what is basically an empty room. Save for those very brief flashbacks, these two settings are the only ones used except for a preface, later repeated, showing the news on TV that President Trump has fired the FBI director James Comey and then near the close we get a general indication of what has happened since to Reality Winner (unusually these details precede a short return to the day of the interrogation).
The case of Reality Winner is one not without some echoes of Edward Snowden’s situation and it certainly brings up the same key question as to what attitude – approving? condemning? – one takes of whistleblowers who, accused of acting against the national interest, can claim that they did what they did due to their patriotic belief that their countrymen were entitled to know important facts which were being concealed by the authorities. To consider Reality Winner in this context would seem by far the most relevant thing about her, but here it is no more than an incidental element. What we see is a woman who initially denies the removal of any copied material from her place of work but who gradually comes to admit what she did do. Only in passing does she say that she believed her actions to be laudable.
This emphasis means that the focus is as much on the FBI agents as it is on her and Reality becomes a work in which they too are key figures as we see them exercising their ability to obtain admissions from her. It is indeed the case that they are slow to show her the warrant they have and far more seriously in inviting her to talk they gave no statement as to her right to remain silent (the so-called Miranda rights). Nevertheless, no force or harassment were applied and the way in which we see Garrick and Taylor carry out their duties suggests that for the most part they did a very skilled job. Indeed, by putting the focus exclusively on this interrogation that aspect comes over strongly. Yet any viewer sympathetic to Reality Winner’s actions would to my mind be entirely justified in feeling that Satter’s film instead of honing in on the major story here has sidetracked the very issues that matter most about it. What we are given instead is certainly not uninteresting but it feels far less significant. None of which is to deny for a moment the quality of the acting to be found here.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Josh Hamilton, Marchánt Davis, Allan Anthony Smith, John Way, Benny Elledge.
Dir Tina Satter, Pro Noah Stahl, Brad Becker-Parton, Riva Marker and Greg Nobile, Screenplay Tina Satter and James Paul Dallas, Ph Paul Yee, Pro Des Tommy Love, Ed Jennier Vecchiarello and Ron Dulin, Music Nathan Micay, Costumes Enver Chakartash.
Seaview Productions/Burn These Words/2Sq Ft/Cinereach/Fit Via Film Productions/Tanbark Pictures-Vertigo Releasing.
82 mins. USA. 2023. US Rel: 29 May 2023. UK Rel: 2 June 2023. Cert. 12A.
