In director Amy Rice's political drama "The Independent" republican Ann Dowd & independent John Cena are locked tight in a US presidential election race... but might journoes Jodi Turner-Smith (excellent) & Brian Cox be about to blow it up by exposing a major campaign financing scandal? It's clearly intended to match the likes of "The Ides Of March", "All The President's Men", "The Ghost Writer" or "The Front Runner" but Evan Parter's debut screenplay is too lightweight, corner-cutting, transparent & tame for it to be in that league (campaign financing... really tho?!). It's passable mid-term election time viewing... but there are FAR better genre examples.