Truth
Actors: Robert Redford, Topher Grace, Elizabeth Moss
Release Date: Friday 4th March 2016
Genre(s): Drama
Running time: 125 minutes
A noble effort from an established screenwriter and first-time director, Truth has a superb cast and a fascinating real-life tale to work with, but doesn't always utilise both.
Vanderbilt, who also writes, is probably best known for penning modern masterpiece, Zodiac and here adapts Mary Mapes' book for the big screen.
Blanchett us reliably great as Mapes', a producer for CBS who stumbles upon a huge story involving then-President George W. Bush and a questionable military record that may have kept him away from the Vietnam war. Going with the story as a featured item with iconic news anchor Dan Rather (a subtle Redford), the story has huge reverberation when the far right aggresively attack the sources previously thought as solid.
It's clear what 'Truth's' politics are from the start; to be fair it is based on a book by the producer at its core. The heat it's taken from certain critics in the US is that it maybe doesn't balance both sides as best it could. A fair one, but at no time are you 100% that Mapas and her team are without fault - her sources seemed solid but never certain. That slightly uneven ground, while ostensibly an attempt at the aforementioned telling of both sides, comes off more as a gesture.
A good gauge of how well a true life tale affects the viewer is 'did you go home and google the characters'? This reviewer did, and found the story fascinating and all of the moving parts equally so. If there's one person who comes off possibly without fault, it's legendary news man, Dan Rather, who seemed to pay the price for his loyalty. Redford does his best work in years as Rather, a warm, principled old school journalist who deserves his legacy left untarnished.
Worth your time, just maybe not the price of a cinema ticket when you look at the last journalism movie to hit the flicks - unfussy, but powerful Oscar winner Spotlight
