Nothing But the Truth (2008)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Rod Lurie

Writer (WGA):

Rod Lurie (written by)

Release Date:

9 July 2009 (Portugal)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Don't Reveal the Source

Plot:

In Washington, D.C., a female reporter faces a possible jail sentence for outing a CIA agent and refusing to reveal her source.

Plot Keywords:

Source | CIA | Female Reporter | Reporter | Pulitzer Prize

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Kate Beckinsale	...	Rachel Armstrong
Matt Dillon	...	Patton Dubois
Angela Bassett	...	Bonnie Benjamin
Alan Alda	...	Alan Burnside
Vera Farmiga	...	Erica Van Doren
David Schwimmer	...	Ray Armstrong
Courtney B. Vance	...	Agent O'Hara
Noah Wyle	...	Avril Aaronson
Floyd Abrams	...	Judge Hall
Preston Bailey	...	Timmy Armstrong
Kristen Bough	...	Allison Van Doren
Julie Ann Emery	...	Agent Boyd
Robert Harvey	...	Warden
Michael O'Neill	...	CIA Director
Kristen Shaw	...	Angel Rabinowitz

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some sexual material and a scene of violence.

Runtime:

108 min | Canada:108 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Company:

Battleplan Productions

Trivia:

Rod Lurie's previous film Resurrecting the Champ (2007) also dealt with a journalist seeking a big story and trying to get the Pulitzer Prize. Both films were also influenced by true events.

Quotes:

Dubois: [Approaches Burnside after the court] This is a real honour for me. I studied you growing up, my dad was also a lawyer.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards (2009) (TV)

Strong Political Thriller

I am writing this for someone who has seen the movie, but I don't want to give away anything of the plot nonetheless, so if you've not seen the movie, this review isn't for you.

I thought NBTT worked very well, and I believe it is because the casting fits the characters SO perfectly. There are some wonderful pieces of acting here: Beckinsale, Farmiga, Dillon, Schwimmer, Wylie, Alda------virtually everyone is believable, genuine. The parts are written simply, according to the actors, and Lurie allows the actors to flesh out the characters as they see fit.

I thought this a marvelous touch of egalitarian direction. Aspiring filmmakers should take note. As writer/director Rod Lurie expressed it: "It's like my kids----when they were little, I knew them much better than they knew themselves. But as they got older, eventually they knew themselves much better than I could know them." So he wrote the characters, and gave acting directions, but once the actors had taken on their personae, they became masters of deciding how their characters would act in each situation, with Lurie's full approval. Perhaps this approach wouldn't work as well for some writer/directors, (I am reminded of the story how Omar Sharif was told, against his instincts, NOT to act by director David Lean --the better to display the ineffable nature of his character's slightly abstracted poetic bent-- and how successful the outcome) and maybe it wouldn't work at all for some actors, but it definitely works for this cast, and it shows. They breathe life into their characters, inhabit them, . . .and isn't that what it's about?

Getting an actor to lose her/himself into the character ---- the great ones do this seemingly effortlessly, this laying aside of their egos, to become someone else for the role, and lesser actors struggle to make it happen with less success. Whenever the transition happens, the audience knows it. We respond to their compassion for their character, as if we were accomplices to the task. The audience is invited in to their craft, and experiences it vicariously. There are some very talented people on this film, and they found the director's trust much to their liking, judging again from the final product.

Story wise, this film straddles that fine line between the black and white of political morality to show that we live whether we like it or not always in the gray zones. Beckinsale's character must follow her heart as much as her head, and she is very strong hearted. Dillon's character, her antagonist, follows his head, and he is very head strong- ----this is the basic conflict, and one which also typifies a lot of what passes as liberal/conservative argument. No one is clearly right, no one clearly wrong, yet some are going to be victimized by those whose power allows them the right to punish opposing views.

As in real life, I found myself chafing at the dismissal of the blame for the (pseudo)foreign plot against the president which is used as pretense for war as insignificant compared to "Who Said What?" By focusing on the actions of those who report events, and ignoring the events themselves and their bloody outcomes, the bigger societal picture is constantly given short shrift. Beckinsale's character, a journalist, becomes the issue, while the deaths and costs of a major international incident fade in importance. Same as in America today------ accountability is not attributed to those whose actions are most egregious, only to those who find themselves scapegoated for distraction's sake with horrific consequences to those unfortunates and little empathy from the equally distracted populace, and blind ignorance to US foreign policy.

So the movie touches nerves, and certainly touched mine.

I know the movie is about 1st Amendment rights, and governmental power-- ---but part of the strength of the journalistic protagonist HAS to come from her sense that what she reported called attention to a larger political wrong, one that offended her Constitutional --and humanitarian-- morality deeply. This is only alluded to in the film, yet to me must underlie her principles.

Great film, I gave it a 9 only because it could have been even more powerful had it gone into the suffering more deeply of everyone involved, and I wish it had. We see glimpses of those breakdowns, but closer scrutiny would have created even more discomfort --but more compassion-- for the audience. I bet that if he had to do it over, knowing how strong his actors were, Lurie would've gone to that greater depth.

Then the film would be a classic.