Mark Felt: the Man Who Brought Down the White House

Mark who? You'll maybe better know Felt as "Deep Throat", the high-level FBI whistle-blower whose leaks to Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein in the wake of Watergate led to Richard Nixon's resignation as US president. Liam Neeson plays Felt, and patently relishes a role of some depth and subtlety after the two-dimensional action roles that the surprise success of Taken has saddled him with. He's terrific, playing Felt as a career agent fully committed to the FBI's core values of integrity and independence, but more than a little miffed at being passed by for the directorship after the death of autocratic Bureau founder J Edgar Hoover. The film is a touch dour and sluggish, and a side story about Felt's search for his daughter is more a needless distraction than the humanising element it was patently meant to be. But, while not in the same league as All The President's Men or, more recently, The Post, it's a decent addition to films about that particular political period.