''A Dark Truth'' (also known as ''The Truth'') is a 2012 action thriller film directed and written by

Damian Lee Damian Lee is a Canadian film director, writer, and producer responsible as well as notable for such films as '' Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe'', ''No Exit'' and ''Ski School A ski school is an establishment that teaches skiing, typicall ...

, and produced by Gary Howsam and Bill Marks. The film stars

Andy García Andrés Arturo García Menéndez (born April 12, 1956), known professionally as Andy García, is a Cuban-born American actor, director and musician. He first rose to prominence acting in Brian De Palma's ''The Untouchables'' (1987) alongside ...

Kim Coates Kim F. Coates (born February 21, 1958) is a Canadian–American actor who has worked in both Canadian and American films and television series. He has worked on Broadway portraying Stanley Kowalski in ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' and in the lead ...

Deborah Kara Unger Deborah Kara Unger (born 12 May 1966) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her roles in the films '' Highlander III: The Sorcerer'' (1994), ''Crash'' (1996), '' The Game'' (1997), '' Payback'' (1999), '' The Hurricane'' (1999), ''White Noise ...

Eva Longoria Eva Jacqueline Longoria Bastón ( Longoria; March 15, 1975) is an American actress, producer, and director. After a number of guest roles on several television series, she was recognized for her portrayal of Isabella Braña on the CBS daytime ...

and

Forest Whitaker Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Forest Whitaker, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award ...

. It premiered at the 2012 Boston Film Festival and was released theatrically in the United States on January 4, 2013.

Plot

The film begins with Francisco Francis (Forest Whitaker) running in the jungle with his family while soldiers are shooting and killing people around them. The scene changes to an office building where Tony Green (Steven Bauer) is speaking to Bruce (Kim Coates) in Clearbec corporate offices telling him that Francisco had broken into the local offices and stolen their files. As he converses with Bruce, he orders Renaldo (Devon Bostick), a young aide in his office, to hurry. Renaldo and Tony leave the local offices amid gunfire and chaos, but pause when a woman shouts at Renaldo. She is his mother; she is shot and killed by soldiers as Renaldo looks on. Tony shows his corporate ID to the soldiers and pulls Renaldo into his car. As they attempt to leave the city, they stop at a road block and watch soldiers gun down an unarmed man. Renaldo jumps out of the car and escapes the carnage. The scene changes to Jack Begosian (Andy García) speaking to call-ins on his radio program in Toronto, Canada, Atlanta, Georgia and Los Angeles, California discussing his pessimism about the government and his faith in the goodness of humankind. He points out that water is not a commodity to be bought or sold and is questioned about his former service in the CIA. As Jack drives to his home in the remote Canadian forest, Morgan (Deborah Kara Unger) sits shivering in her tub. Later, she goes to a hospital ribbon cutting ceremony where Renaldo confronts her as she gets into her limo, accusing Clearbec of murder and telling her his message is in the car. He shoots himself. Stunned and traumatized, she listens to a tape he left for her recording the gunshots and screams. He tells her that Francisco stole papers proving that Clearbec was involved in a typhus outbreak. The scene switches to Francisco and his family hiding in the jungle as General Aguilla hunts for them. He and his wife, Mia (Eva Longoria) argue briefly about leaving the dead behind. Francisco kills a soldier who pursues them. Renaldo reports that the soldiers got sick and began to execute everyone. Mia hands Francisco a gun and takes a rifle, using it shortly after to shoot another pursuing soldier. (Cuts away briefly to Jack explaining to a caller that he quit the CIA because he stopped believing the lies). At corporate headquarters, Tony and Bruce argue about General Aguilla's murder of civilians and Bruce orders Tony to do damage control and keep the carnage a secret. Morgan questions her brother, Bruce about what happened in Ecuador. He tells her that Renaldo was an anti-government reporter and nutcase. She tells him about the tape and asks again about what happened. He dismisses her concerns and tells her to go to lunch and do fund raisers and bad marriages. He tells her to go home. Doug, an assistant, enters the office and tells Bruce that the secret will be kept but that Morgan is a problem.

Cast

Production

Filming started in October 2011 and took place on location in Canada, shooting in North Bay,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Sudbury,

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The film was also shot in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

Reception

Critical response

The film received negative reviews. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''A Dark Truth'' holds an approval rating of 8%, based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 3.34/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gave the film the 31%, sampled from 6 critics.

Box office

''A Dark Truth'' grossed $5,750 in North America.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dark Truth, A 2012 films 2012 action thriller films American action thriller films Canadian action thriller films English-language Canadian films Films shot in the Dominican Republic Films shot in Greater Sudbury Films directed by Damian Lee Films with screenplays by Damian Lee Films shot in Toronto Films shot in Atlanta Films shot in Los Angeles 2010s English-language films Films shot in North Bay, Ontario 2010s American films 2010s Canadian films