“Disrupt everything.”
The film centers on George who is absolutely singular about truth. We find George as a secret service agent then, naturally. The film plot opens with a conversation about a situation by the name of Severus. His wife, whom he works with, though not permitted to speak to about this, he does so anyway. This is deliberate because the entire movie unfolds as double crossing couples and agencies fail as a result of lying and deception. The secret service, by the end of the movie, is actually this marriage. This is all deliberate.
At the dinner scene with the cast, the fact that the young woman sitting adjacent from George, Clarissa, is his exact counterpoint and [(spoiler) but never explicitly stated in the film] she is the villain. None of this is stated in the film, but she is having an affair with the young dude which is why she makes the video game reference. She is also very aware of George. He is good, she is evil (and sad), “that’s what bad bitches do”, awkward silence. The film makes it explicit that she is the actual deadbrain behind the “trouble”. Clarissa’s “evil” is really about being this young woman who is in a system that strives for power and openly lies and, she is the champion of that system. This is what Derrida referred to as autoimmunity. The system itself has a danger coming from within, of its own making, by its own image. She pleads with George “how does that work?” She is asking him about his marriage.
These two threads are I believe the strongest points of the film, that the film is entirely dependent on 1. George’s “hyper monogamy” and 2. A secret hiding conniving grasping for power. The film makes an incredible statement on the nature of marriage and its relation to rigorous and uncompromising truth. A pyramid of double crossing within and without the agency is situated around an event, the bombing of a nuclear power plant to end a war (?) but at the cost of human life (“20,000”). Someone within the agency “leaked” this information and George wants weed out the rat.
This wouldn’t be possible without his wife. He trusts her and they can work together to solve the crime. He creates a situation to uncover the truth, he does this. Of course he does. Brilliant movie. 3:53PM
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