Thanks for the memories!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

From the very onset, via a blink of an eye assassination attempt on the president, TRUTH gets a headlock on your psyche and doesn't let go. It manages to be both extremely entertaining and thought-provoking, tackling perhaps one of the most important issues facing Americans in the 21st century: Balancing the First Amendment Right of journalists to protect the confidentiality of their sources against the government's right to guarantee national security during wartime. And it manages to do so in a very unpretentious way, without any of the In-Your-Face preaching so often found in films dealing with this topic.Kudos to Rod Luries taut and low-key direction coaxing a remarkable ensemble performance from a stellar cast. Kate Becksinsale shines as an unshakable journalist who refuses to buckle under constantly mounting Federal pressure to coerce her into revealing her source. Vera Farmiga (who never caught my attention before) delivers a solid performance as the outed CIA agent at the center of a firestorm. For Matt Dillon fans, an interesting note: His performance as the Special Prosecutor hand-picked by the President to find the Traitor Tout Suite is a laudable departure from his usual tough-guy/low-life roles. Rounding out this outstanding cast are, Angela Basset, Alan Alda, Edie Falco and David Schwimmer. There is one final element to mention that adds a potent punch to Truth, but any details would be a SPOILER, so, when you see it, you'll know.(9 Stars) ENJOY / DISFRUTELA!Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!

While in Venezuela, the US President is attacked. Some time later after the US is under the impression that the Venezuelan government was involved decides to attack Venezuela.Some time later a reporter's story is approved by the newspaper bosses. The story is about how the government in fact didn't have any evidence on Venezuela's involvement but attacked anyway, in other words it attacked a nation on false pretenses. In the article, the reporter mentions a CIA agent by name, which is a crime. The information her source gave her is corroborated by two others. Legal warns Rachel the reporter that she will get in trouble with the government for this.Sure enough, a special prosecutor meets her. He's affable enough and tells her what is going to happen. She will be dragged in front of a grand jury and the judge will ask for the name of her source. If she doesn't comply she will be jailed for contempt. And that's exactly what happens, even though her big-wig attorney claims the whole thing will only be a 5 minute meeting and nothing will happen.In the meantime, the CIA goes after the agent, thinking that she voluntarily spilled her guts to the reporter. As it turns out her husband writes articles critical of the government. At some point she's killed by a hit-man.Rachel in the meantime spends a year in jail until the judge realizes that jail serves no purpose since she's not going to reveal her source. But he also hints at what the prosecutor could do to keep Rachel in jail. And that's what he does. Right after she's released, he drags her back to jail on criminal charges. In the end we learn who the source is and it is a bit of surprise.Nothing But the Truth could have been an intriguing political-legal thriller. Unfortunately, it's not. It's a jail/legal drama based on the story of Valerie Wilson who was outed on purpose by the government because her husband ambassador wrote articles that didn't fit with the narrative the government invented to justify invading Iraq. That said, the script is pretty strong. Of course it presents the reporters as idealists who'll do anything for free speech. But even the newspaper bosses start thinking twice when the corrupt judge, agreeing with every single thing the special prosecutor wants, fines the newspaper $10000 a day till Rachel talks.The movie does a good job presenting the viciousness of government once someone ends up in their sights. They'll throw the book at the person and then some. Of course this only applies to those who don't have a lot of power/money/prestige.Beckinsale is solid as always and she can even make a reporter be sympathetic. Dillon is outstanding as the seemingly reasonable prosecutor with whom you can actually deal with--as long as the person does what he wants. Otherwise he'll use all the nasty tricks in the book to go after him. Alan Alda is hilarious as the ostentatious supposedly expert attorney on free speech but who's in reality more interested in Zegna suits and fancy watches.The surprise at the end about who the source is was effective but it upends the entire movie making it all pointless--the whole trial and suffering but also the whole reporter's stance which was supposed to be on principle. Nothing But the Truth is effective in showing the nasty injustice of the "justice" system but not much more, when it could have done a lot more.

I saw this for a night of kicking back with spy movie machinations where a narrator finds himself hapless in the face of secret agencies, the overlap of manipulable stories controlled from afar. It's exactly this; a narrator has just unveiled a story of intrigue, a newspaper story that is expected to shake the system to its core, inspire self- examination. She's willing to go to prison to uphold principles of revealing truth, jeopardize family.Those were the Bush years. The film disguises Iraq for Venezuela and 9/11 for an assassination attempt on the president as pretext for invasion, but the gist is the same; higher-ups lied to people, fabricated a story to odious ends abroad, willing to suppress freedom for security at home.We're meant to see how the system isn't shook and blithely goes on, how every tool is used to break her in the name of security. She comes out on the other end having protected her source, upheld principle, but at huge personal cost to no change. It's meant to be a bleak look. But it's all marred for my taste by the fact that it never rises above obvious movie-isms like having her husband strike an affair so we'll have added micro drama about choices. This isn't about what might happen of course, but what you decide did in the course of creating persons and giving rise to world. A marriage can be frayed without having it come down to he found someone else. It's the difference between plucking clean synthetic sounds on a computer and going out to to find them.

I'm not generally one for the political thrillers but this was pretty good. I was engrossed enough to find myself frustrated by 'Rachel's' decisions and the story is definitely thought provoking, with Kate Beckinsale playing a principled investigative journalist in Washington DC who writes a story that outs a CIA operative and winds up going to jail for not revealing her source.There's an excellent cast attached here(Alan Alda, Angela Bassett, David Schwimmer, Matt Dillon, Noah Wyle, Vera Farmiga) all giving good performances and the ending provided a twist that totally surprised me and explained why she couldn't give up her source, because all along I'd been thinking; you're losing everything, your marriage, son, career and nobody cares anymore what for. Why don't you just give up the damn source? It's not worth all this. 03.18.14