Turning a 6-hour British miniseries into a 2-hour American political thriller is no mean trick, but director Kevin Macdonald and his able crew have pulled it off pretty well. Action gets attention right from the start: In separate scenes, two people are dispatched by a hit man and a young woman is the victim of a subway "accident." This eventually involves a Congressman (Ben Affleck) — as tracked by a reporter (rumpled, believable Russell Crowe) and a blogger (perky Rachel McAdams). Helen Mirren is on hand as the editor of their Washington newspaper, providing interesting commentary on the place of newsprint in today's electronic-information age.
The Blu-ray picture is very good when things are bright and sunny, less so when they're dark and images turn a little blotchy, without sufficient shadow detail. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound favors the dialogue — but for a talky movie, that's not so bad, and music and effects are resounding when they need to be. Extras include two justly jettisoned scenes, a not entirely trivial production featurette, and Universal's U-Control feature, which provides a choice between an entertaining PIP commentary and some cool pop-up info about Washington.
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