Thanks for telling me about it. It was gripping. My problem with it is that I had little sympathy for her.
Before her real source was revealed at the end, my feeling was that she aided and abetted treason, which would carry a similar sentence to treason. The little girl being the source threw a monkey wrench into that. However, a child can't be a real, credible source. She would have to corroborate, and that role went to the drunk at the party. The unlikely sequence of events makes her fully culpable. She took advantage of a child's innocence and a drunk's ramblings. She basically played the role of both the spy against United States national security and the reporter. She is ultimately the traitor and the accomplice.
I doubt that's not how the story is supposed to make me feel. Does the writer really think we all have such contempt for these institutions that we would welcome this kind of harm to them?
Children, in many cases -- and I think this movie is one of them cases -- are often used as a symbol for innocence, youth, and truth. The little girl didn't know any better and just always speaks the truth, blabbering whatever is true -- since she is seen as a tattle-tale, in the opening scene of the film on the bus.
About Kate Beckinsale's character, I think her not revealing her source was...something else. That was the whole journey of the film, basically -- I wanted to know the whole time who it was and what kind of lengths she would go to to keep her mouth shut. She obviously stood for what she believed in -- whether it's right, wrong, or something gray. She was not going to give up her source -- and for most of the flick, she kept her word. Given what her sources really were for this CIA operative story -- a drunk that confirmed what the little girl said was true, no wonder she hesitated to tell. She said she wasn't going to give up her source(s)...despite everything she was put through and that she set herself up to be through, she really wouldn't give the source(s) up -- until the end, when the drunk came forward and also when she struck the deal for 2 years (to reveal the little kid). It destroyed her life completely, chasing after a Pulitzer and some sort of fame -- putting such a story in the paper.
I felt some sympathy to her, here and there -- such as the ass-whooping she took in jail and to the lengths she was being pursued by Matt Dillon's character for this source -- but by the end, when it was revealed a little girl told her this, I was shocked she'd even go with the story. Why would she even think of putting a little girl and her family in such great lengths of danger? That was what got me -- tipped me over the edge; especially with Vera's character winding up dead and all. She really should've kept her mouth shut and not had the story printed at all -- period.
Also, imagine the embarrassment Kate could've thrown towards The Gov't, if she revealed early on that a kid told her the truth -- that would be even more embarrassing, if she did this especially RIGHT after Vera's character was killed by that left-wing loon. That would've really made them look silly, chasing after...a little girl -- even more so, if she did it after a little girl's mother got killed off. Now, let's go and imagine what the worst could've happened next, if that all occurred -- imagine if The Gov't found out it was a little girl that dropped the dime...and coldly decided they wanted the little girl to be killed off. I doubt that would occur -- they'd probably put the girl in some sort of witness protection -- but imagine if there was a Gov't that was that cold-hearted and would do such a thing. Or imagine if some other hitmen or something decided to come after the little girl. Yeah, it'd be pure madness...
All and all, whatever that did occur, could've occurred, and didn't occur -- Beckinsale's character set all these events into motion that caused this entire shit-storm. She was the at fault and responsible for pretty much everything.
I was expecting Vera Faminga's character to be the source the entire time. I was...dead wrong.
