A taut, eerie espionage drama

The actress and writer Brit Marling, virtually unknown only a few years ago, has now starred in three modest but memorable indies: Another Earth, an eerie sci-fi tale; Sound of My Voice, an eerie suspenser about a cult and its enigmatic leader; and now The East, a taut espionage drama that pits global corporations against a radical band of ecoterrorists.

It's more than a little eerie, too.

In The East, Marling - piercing, perceptive, charismatic in an un-movie-star-like way - is Sarah Moss, an ex-FBI agent who lives with her boyfriend (Jason Ritter) in Washington and goes off on assignments she can't talk about. She works for a private security firm. Her jobs are deep cover - infiltration, false identities, lies.

She tries to hang on to her real life, wearing a cross around her neck and a look of impassive calm as she goes to and fro around the nation's capital. But when she wins a plum assignment from her boss (a very good, very chilly Patricia Clarkson), Sarah's ability to maintain a hold on who she really is is put to the test.

She is working her way into The East, a group of anarchist "freegans" who sabotage oil companies, pharmaceutical companies, and global concerns that have, in the collective's view, poisoned the environment and harmed the public, all for the sake of profit.

First, Sarah has to find this mystery outfit. Then, she has to convince its members of her worthiness - that she is one of them.

And inevitably, as she falls in with this cloistered commune and its leader, Benji (Alexander Skarsgård), and Izzy (Ellen Page), a young woman bent on destroying the company her father runs, Sarah finds herself questioning her own values, her faith, and her sense of self.

Spy movies are a great metaphor for life: Most of us, to varying degrees, are guilty of acts of deception, of holding secrets, of trying to insinuate ourselves into other people's worlds, where we might not necessarily belong. Our motives may not be malicious, our allegiances may not be to a government or an intelligence agency, but in a sense, we are all spies.

And so The East, sharply directed by Zal Batmanglij (who collaborated with Marling on the screenplay), is both an exceptionally smart and gripping thriller (albeit one that gets a little rushed and fuzzy at the end) and a thoughtful commentary on the nature of trust and identity.

And did I say it's eerie?