Nothing But the Truth

Nothing But the Truth

Nothing But the Truth

From PASTO, COLOMBIA-Via L. A. CA; CALI, COLOMBIA+ORLANDO, FL The ONLY Tony Kiss Castillo on FaceBook! 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!

The lead character takes a child's innocent words on a school bus for personal gain, approaches the mother of the child on a soccer field and catching her off guard with 'our kids go to school together', confirms her story by catching a drunken man at a party, names the mother of the child publicly without regard for the damage to the family - and people associate her with 'integrity'? Has the definition been changed for the purpose of this movie or is this Hollywood's version of 'journalistic integrity'? This movie should have been classified as a comedy rather than a thriller - it would have had more credibility. The acting was outstanding though - what a waste of effort!

This is a movie for those wishing a career in public relations, not journalism, as it claims. Ms Beckinsale plays a reporter willing to risk everything to do the right thing, namely, protect her source. And by my estimation she succeeds quite handily. I didn't really think she could act very well, though she'd never really been tested, but she clearly can and does here, and it's a pleasure to see because there are way too many actresses out there who are merely a pretty face and body. I had no problem thinking she could have been this determined reporter, but I should mention that my wife felt differently. Now my wife is not too kind to pretty women in general so I'm not quite sure what to make of it, but I enjoyed Kate's performance, with some minor reservations, and had no trouble being carried along by it, and it does the heavy lifting in the story, consuming the lion's share of the film. She's a beautiful lady, and perhaps I might question her having ever endured much pain and suffering in her personal life, but I don't doubt she understands what it means to have principles and can effectively imagine what it would be like to fight for them. Another surprise was Alan Alda who I generally dislike. Here he's quite good, I thought, as was Matt Dillon, Vera Farmiga and David Schwimmer. Mr Dillon is actually quite memorable and you can't take your eyes off Vera whenever she's on screen and you kind of wish she were on more. But the biggest surprise of all was that they would try to confuse what Judith Miller did with what Kate Beckinsale's character does in this film. Ms Miller is hardly a hero. She gladly passed on information fed to her by a vindictive White House. And, why not? She'd long since done the same for the intelligence agencies before that, not particularly caring whether the information was merely manipulative or not. As I understand it, she was most interested in forwarding Israel's agenda in the New York Times whenever she could. And it was less a matter of finding the truth than it was playing gullible at the right moment. That they're clearly attempting to resurrect her career here is pretty contemptible though I can't really say that completely destroys the performances or the peculiar entertainment value of the movie.

Kate Beckinsale, Vera Farmiga, Alan Alda, Matt Dilon. Such great cast alone was enough "quality stamp" for me to get me interested in this film. I must say Nothing But The Truth has exceeded my expectations many times over. Based on a true story, the basic plot line has close focus on a reporter of a Washington D.C. major newspaper Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale) who after writing an article on the US president's actions revealing the identity of a secret CIA agent Erica Van Doren (Vera Farmiga) is being pressured to reveal her secret source by the government in such ways she could never have imagined. The story flows flawlessly, picks up nicely and slowly drags you into a twist of controversial emotions, drawing the characters with all their pros and cons and letting you slowly get acquainted with their moral inner fights. Beckinsale and Farmiga have a great energy between them that will have you forget you're watching a movie and catch your breath at the few scenes at which they confront each other. Alda, as usual is a brilliant defender of humanity and freedom. Dilon's take on the "hyenous prosecutor" is so tremendously real will all aspects of belief in his work it's simply scary. Alik Sakharov great DoP work on this film shows every muscle moving on the actors' faces, which underlines the great work of the actors. This film definitely proves Lurie knows what he's doing out there and I'll definitely have my eye on his future work.

Very nice movie, a bit slow. Kate Beckinsale refuses to not look completely edible even when she has jail scenes, while Vera Farmiga looks just as good as to make one think it will be a movie about a cat fight. But it is far from it. I think the best acted role in this movie belongs to Matt Dillon, though. The film portrays the trials (pun intended) of an American journalist who is jailed and then imprisoned for withholding the source of her article. Why? Because it involved matters of national security. Is national security more important than truth and integrity? The movie tries to explain why it is not by detailing how deep this is inscribed in the U.S. legislation. Basically, you can say whatever you want, just not what they don't want you to say. Kate Beckinsale does a very good role, a bit airy and a bit brave. "A water walker", someone calls her character in the film. Best description ever :) David Schwimmer manages to be annoying in this one, as well. Bottom line: a must see movie, however keep in mind that even if it based on the true story of Valerie Plame, it is very loosely so. Yet, without being American, my guess is that the legislation portrayed in the film exists and any reporter could and would go through the main character's ordeal if having enough backbone.

While you may have already guessed that this movie borrows from the infamous Plame affair, be assured that it's really just borrowing. There are crucial deviations from the actual case which make this film purely fictional, including the cheesy (anti) climax. It takes you half way through though to definitely recognize that it is not a depiction of major investigative journalism in the spirit of All The President's Men. At which point I at least began asking myself what it actually was about. With the conclusion not much in terms of content, and a total bore in terms of execution. Regarding the "story", there's that journalist outing a CIA operative and going to jail to protect her source. And that's already it. Much of the rest is just elaborating on how this situation puts a strain on her marriage and how much she misses her son while being locked away. Occasionally there'll be a hearing about "her case", but you really get a feeling that it's of secondary interest. In my view, likely due to the creators not daring to fully penetrate the real case and losing focus in consequence, assuming they had one in the first place which I actually doubt. But that's speculation of course. I'd like to mention favorably some well performed aspects of this production, but it's really not worth the time considering the fundamentally void core. The single reason I can imagine somebody would want to watch this movie is a Beckinsale fan enjoying her wearing a make up which looks like it was none. Plus maybe a caring mother who loves to be reassured that there could be other caring mothers. But that's really it.

This rates up very high on my scale as one of the better movies of 2008. Its not written as though a high and mighty political messenger wrote it, yet you do not have to look to deep to find the meaning. The star studded cast of Matt Dillon, Alan Alda and Kate Bechinsale brings out the qualities that was needed to make this type of film truly majestic. The intense vigor of how the prosecuting attorney played by Matt Dillon, (which I first thought was going to be way out of character for him, but he pulled it off so effectively that he now has a new fan), actually attacks our protagonist is so real and matter of fact. Being based on a true story helps in the matter of believability and the injustice of our justice system. 8/10