Nothing but the Truth (2008 American film)

Plot

Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale) is an ambitious reporter for the Capital Sun-Times. When she discovers a fellow mother at her son's school, Erica Van Doren (Vera Farmiga) is working as a covert operative for the CIA and recently returned from Venezuela, where she was investigating an assassination attempt on the President of the United States, she confronts her and requests confirmation. Erica refuses to cooperate, but Rachel has no doubts about the veracity of the report, and her story becomes front-page news with the support of editor Bonnie Benjamin (Angela Bassett) and Avril Aaronson (Noah Wyle), who serves as the newspaper's legal counselor.

Because revealing a covert operative's identity is a treasonous offence and because the individual who leaked the information to Rachel is a potential threat to national security, special Federal prosecutor Patton Dubois (Matt Dillon) convenes a grand jury and demands to know who her source is, information she refuses to divulge. High-profile attorney Albert Burnside (Alan Alda), hired by the newspaper to defend Rachel, is certain his personal friendship with Judge Hall will facilitate matters and is shocked when his client is jailed for contempt of court.

Days become weeks, and then months, during the course of which Van Doren is murdered in a politically motivated attack. Yet Rachel steadfastly defends the principle of confidentiality, a position that eventually estranges her husband Ray (David Schwimmer), alienates her young son Timmy (Preston Bailey), and costs her embattled newspaper millions of dollars in fines and legal fees. However, Dubois is only interested in Armstrong's original source. Armstrong pleads to Dubois that she could never give up her source as they would have to deal with the consequential ramifications of the death of Van Doren. Burnside even argues her case before the Supreme Court, but they decide against him 5–4, citing the overriding concern of national security.

Eventually, Judge Hall decides to release Armstrong from jail, as he is convinced she will never divulge her source and, therefore, cannot be pressured through continued incarceration. On the day she is released, Dubois has the U.S. Marshals arrest her for obstruction of justice and convinces her to take a deal for a shortened sentence rather than go to trial. She agrees to two years in prison, with the possibility of early parole for good behavior. As Armstrong is taken to the facility, she reminisces about her time as a volunteer at Timmy's school, and when she spoke to Van Doren's daughter, Alison, who revealed to her on a school field trip that her mother worked for the government and recently went to Venezuela on "business", thus revealing Alison as the original source.

Cast

Production

Attorney Floyd Abrams had argued for The New York Times and Judith Miller in the grand jury investigation of her report about Valerie Plame, and he was hired as a consultant on the film by screenwriter/director Rod Lurie, who was so impressed with his demeanor he cast Abrams as Judge Hall.

Release

The film received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2008, with the cast in attendance. Yari Film Group was to give the film a limited release in the United States (Los Angeles and New York City) on December 19, 2008, but due to the Chapter 11 protection that was filed by the company, Nothing but the Truth was pulled from its scheduled date and has never been released in theaters.

Home media

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on DVD on April 28, 2009. It is in anamorphic widescreen format with an English audio track and subtitles. Bonus features include commentary with screenwriter/director Rod Lurie and producer Marc Frydman, The Truth Hurts: The Making of Nothing but the Truth, and eight deleted scenes.

Box office

The film opened in several international markets despite its distribution struggles in the United States. It made $409,832 at the foreign box office, with the biggest intake from Italy, where it made $223,130.

Critical response

Although the film never officially opened, several critics who had seen it in advance screenings nonetheless published their reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 81% approval rating, based on 57 reviews, with the film scoring an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A well-crafted political thriller, Nothing but the Truth features a strong cast that helps the real-life drama make an effortless transition to the big screen." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 64 out of 100, based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times thought the "confusing film mixes familiar plot points with some grievous nonsense, most of which involves the two women's irritatingly distracting home lives. That's too bad for all sorts of reasons, including this one: when not cooing inanities at pipsqueaks, the actresses are pretty good, both together and individually. There's pleasure in watching them go manolo a manolo against each other, particularly Ms. Farmiga, who fills out her size 0 with macho swagger. Despite a shaky start, Ms. Beckinsale does eventually look the part of the harassed and haggard heroine, if largely by not wearing any eye makeup."

In the Los Angeles Times, Sam Adams observed the film "isn't ripped from the headlines so much as it's pasted together like a ransom note, using scraps so small their origins are indiscernible. The obvious inspiration for the story of a newspaper reporter who is jailed for refusing to reveal her sources is the Valerie Plame affair, and for a while the details match up. But from there, Lurie spins off into invention like a Law & Order writer on deadline, scrambling the issues so thoroughly it's no longer clear what, if anything, the movie is meant to address."

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film three out of four stars and commented: "Lurie is expert at springing surprises and getting the best out of a first-rate cast. Beckinsale excels at finding the chinks in Rachel's armor. Farmiga goes so deep into her character you can feel her nerve endings. And Alda is simply superb as a lawyer whose peacock vanity about his designer wardrobe hardly prepares you for his moving argument for principles before the Supreme Court." He added: "Lurie has crafted a different kind of thriller, one with a mind and a heart." In reviewing the DVD release, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded it 3.5 out of four stars and called it "a finely crafted film of people and ideas, of the sort more common before the movie mainstream became a sausage factory. It respects the intelligence of the audience, it contains real drama, it earns its suspense, and it has a point to make."