FYI, the reason that the post title doesn't say "In Theaters" or "On DVD" is because the production company behind the film, Yari Film Group, filed for Chapter 11 last month. "Nothing But The Truth" was playing in NYC in late December just to qualify for awards season, and has now been showing up at a few awards festivals, but its future is pretty unsure.
Anyway.
“Nothing But The Truth” is a fictionalized account of the Valerie Plame case. Kate Beckinsale plays Rachel Armstrong, a Sun-Times reporter that reveals that an ambassador’s wife is a CIA operative (Vera Farmiga), who went on a mission to Venezuela an wrote a report that the president disregarded concerning the war or something like that…..
That’s the first fault of the film – they don’t spend enough time with Farmiga’s character, even though she is the best and most fascinating person in the entire film. Some flashbacks would’ve been just what it needed.
When Rachel publishes the piece, Erica (Vera Farmiga) is exposed and though she was assured there would be no repercussions, Rachel gets imprisoned. This is because she refuses to reveal her source, who the prosecution wants to jail for releasing the information. For the rest of the film we follow Rachel as she slowly rots in prison, and her life begins to fall apart.
The film begins very strong and remains so up until Rachel’s imprisonment. Noah Wyle and Angela Bassett are also good as her editor and the newspaper’s attorney. But once Rachel is in jail, it focuses more on her seriously stupid husband (David Schwimmer) and her even more idiotic lawyer (Alan Alda). Beckinsale is pretty good, but after all these AP stories about how she’s being “robbed” of an oscar nom because the Yari Film Group went bankrupt, she doesn’t live up to the hype. She’s a fine actress, but the problem is that anyone could have done this role, and I have yet to see what is special about her. Vera Farmiga on the other hand is so so so so soooo great as Erica Van Doren, and I really wish she had gotten more screen time. She is the only one here that I’m really excited to see what she’ll do in the future.
In the end I think it falls flat due to the poor directing. It’s a good movie, enjoyable enough with a few twist without, but it seems that It easily could’ve been great.
VERDICT: Wait for the (If it ever gets released) DVD.
-- Ari S.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
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I felt the same way with the movie. Vera blew Kate out of the water.
ReplyDeleteI didn't feel any sympathy for Kate.
The first thirty minutes are intense and then it fell apart. It was like "Changeling" syndrome with all the characters saying, "Reveal the name of your source."
When they revealed the source, I was pissed.
I know! I felt almost cheated at the end -- it seemed like she could've told people who her source was, or at least Vera Farmiga would have understood!
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