Review of Nothing But the Truth (2008) by Peter G — 27 Aug 2009

As much as I want to sit here and tell you that the "surprise" twist ending ruins the film (though it may, perhaps, piss you off), Nothing But the Truth is a well-crafted and very well acted political thriller with a more personal focus and view on gender bias and corrupted rights.

The plot follows Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale) in her struggle after printing a story about an undercover CIA Operative (Vera Farmiga) that compromises national security. Rachel refuses to reveal who her source for the story is and thereby gets jailed for contempt of court.

While the idea of the Government trying to keep their citizens down is nothing new, the personal view that this film takes is definitely refreshing. The movie could have been an entirely journalistic look at how a great story causes a massive pile of bad PR, but it instead hones in on what makes people believe in their work. This view reveals a lot about what makes journalists tick and how being a woman in this situation may reveal some sexist discrimination within society.

This is all helped by the good performances that Beckinsale, Dillon and Farmiga give (Alan Alda also gives a rather good performance). Beckinsale never really ever shows off her beauty, so you end up believing that someone like her could easily end up in this position. Dillon isn't very intimidating, but his very deadpan delivery does help you understand his evil intent. Farmiga almost steals the show, but her character disappears too soon to really have much of an impact.

The writing is sometimes clunky in a few scenes (mostly dialog being repetitive), but overall everything works well. The film gets down the press side of the story well and even covers the emotional effect of jail time from a woman's perspective. What I don't enjoy is the random camera quirks that add nothing to the feel of the movie (or even the theme). There are shots that shake around, trying to make you feel like you're running or have a burst of adrenaline, but just make no sense in a film that slowly builds up to it's climax. There is some weird visual effect of looking through glasses, but again it just never comes up again or even tries to add to the confusion the characters feel, so it just fails.

And, as I said in the beginning, the "surprise" twist ending feels extremely cheap. I won't blatantly say it here, but if you know the ending, you know exactly what I'm talking about. How the hell can the audience be expected to believe her source when most intelligent people wouldn't in Rachel's position? She even gets arrested again before the ending, so it's almost like this movie just wants to hate on Rachel so you feel something instead of genuinely producing sympathy.

But, when the film is running before the final 12 minutes, it's definitely quite exciting. Everything works so well and feels complete that the blemishes at the end are forgivable (if only so much). And even with those gray spots, the look at politics and sexism is something I haven't seen a lot in recent cinema (especially not in other Beckinsale films), so that alone is reason enough to view the film once.