''Nothing but the Truth'' is a 2008 American
political drama
A political drama can describe a play, film or TV program that has a political component, whether reflecting the author's political opinion, or describing a politician or series of political events.
Dramatists who have written political dramas in ...
film written and directed by
Rod Lurie
Rod Lurie ( he, רוד לוריא; born May 15, 1962) is an Israeli-American director, screenwriter, and former film critic.
Early life and career
The son of internationally syndicated cartoonist Ranan Lurie, he was born in Israel but moved to ...
. The film stars
Kate Beckinsale
Kathrin Romany Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress and model. After some minor television roles, her film debut was ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She appeared in British costume ...
,
Matt Dillon
Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including an Oscar and Grammy nomination.
Dillon made his feature film debut in '' Over the Edge'' (1979) and established himself as a te ...
,
Angela Bassett
Angela Evelyn Bassett (born August 16, 1958) is an American actress. She had her breakthrough with her portrayal of singer Tina Turner in the biopic ''What's Love Got to Do with It'' (1993), which garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award ...
,
Alan Alda
Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war co ...
and
Vera Farmiga
Vera Ann Farmiga ( ; born August 6, 1973) is an American actress who is best known for portraying paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring Universe films '' The Conjuring'' (2013), '' The Conjuring 2'' (2016), '' Annabelle Co ...
. According to comments made by Lurie in ''The Truth Hurts'', a bonus feature on the DVD release, his inspiration for the screenplay was the case of journalist
Judith Miller
Judith Miller (born January 2, 1948) is an American journalist and commentator known for her coverage of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) program both before and after the 2003 invasion, which was later discovered to have been based on ...
, who in July 2005 was jailed for
contempt of court
Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...
for refusing to testify before a federal
grand jury
A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...
investigating a
leak
A leak is a way (usually an opening) for fluid to escape a container or fluid-containing system, such as a tank or a ship's hull, through which the contents of the container can escape or outside matter can enter the container. Leaks are usuall ...
naming
Valerie Plame
Valerie Elise Plame (born August 13, 1963) is an American writer, spy novelist, and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. As the subject of the 2003 Plame affair, also known as the CIA leak scandal, Plame's identity as a CIA officer ...
as a covert
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
operative, but this was merely a starting point for what is primarily a fictional story. In an April 2009 interview, Lurie stressed: "I should say that the film is about neither of these women although certainly their stories as reported in the press went into the creation of their characters and the situation they find themselves in."
The film premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...
on September 8, 2008. It was scheduled to open in New York City and Los Angeles on December 19, but because distributor
Yari Film Group
The Yari Film Group (YFG) is an independent film company headed by producer Bob Yari. The company deals in financing, production, acquisition, sales and distribution of theatrical feature films.
The Yari Film Group was formed in 2005 through t ...
filed for
Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...
protection, it was never given a theatrical release.
Plot
President Lyman (
Scott Williamson
Scott Ryan Williamson (born February 17, 1976) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) right-handed relief pitcher who played for the Cincinnati Reds (1999–2003), Boston Red Sox (2003-), Chicago Cubs (2005–2006), San Diego Padres ( ...
) is shot in an assassination attempt. In retaliation, the United States bombs
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
, accusing that country of instigating the attack.
Rachel Armstrong (
Kate Beckinsale
Kathrin Romany Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress and model. After some minor television roles, her film debut was ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She appeared in British costume ...
), an ambitious reporter for the Washington D.C. paper ''Capital Sun-Times'', is preparing to publish a report that alleges that the Lyman administration knowingly lied to Congress and the American public by blaming Venezuela for the assassination attempt, and that the Administration received a CIA report by an operative who had investigated the Venezuela connection and found that they were not at all linked to the assassination attempt. The report also reveals that the CIA operative is Erica Van Doren (
Vera Farmiga
Vera Ann Farmiga ( ; born August 6, 1973) is an American actress who is best known for portraying paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring Universe films '' The Conjuring'' (2013), '' The Conjuring 2'' (2016), '' Annabelle Co ...
), whose daughter Alison attends the same school as Timmy, Rachel's son. Rachel confronts Van Doren at a soccer match, and requests confirmation. Erica refuses to cooperate but gives herself away by losing her temper over "irresponsible journalists". Rachel, who has no doubts about the veracity of the report, publishes her story and it becomes front-page news with the full support of editor Bonnie Benjamin (
Angela Bassett
Angela Evelyn Bassett (born August 16, 1958) is an American actress. She had her breakthrough with her portrayal of singer Tina Turner in the biopic ''What's Love Got to Do with It'' (1993), which garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award ...
) and legal counsel Avril Aaronson (
Noah Wyle
Noah Strausser Speer Wyle (; born June 4, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as John Carter (ER), John Carter in the television series ''ER (TV series), ER'' (1994–2009), which earned him nominations for three Golden Glo ...
).
Because revealing a covert operative's identity is a
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
ous offence if committed by a government employee, and because any individual leaking such sensitive and secret information constitutes a threat to national security, special
Federal prosecutor
An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gove ...
Patton Dubois (
Matt Dillon
Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including an Oscar and Grammy nomination.
Dillon made his feature film debut in '' Over the Edge'' (1979) and established himself as a te ...
) convenes a
grand jury
A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...
to identify and prosecute that person. But when Dubois asks her to name the government employee who was her source, she refuses to give any answer at all. A high-profile attorney, Albert Burnside (
Alan Alda
Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war co ...
), who was hired by the newspaper to defend Rachel and boasted that his personal friendship with Judge Hall will facilitate matters, is shocked when his client is jailed for contempt of court for failing to answer. Burnside admonishs the judge for making "a big mistake", warning "sometimes a mistake is like
wearing white after labour day, and sometimes a mistake is
invading Russia in winter".
Days become weeks, weeks turn to months, and in the meantime Van Doren is murdered in front of her home by a political fanatic with a gun. Rachel is aggressed by inmates in prison, but still steadfastly defends the
principle of confidentiality, a position that eventually estranges her husband Ray (
David Schwimmer
David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, director and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom '' Friends'', for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Prime ...
) who like Dubois imagines that she's protecting a government employee, alienates her young son Timmy (
Preston Bailey
Preston Bailey (born July 25, 2000) is an American actor who started acting at the age of two. He is known for appearing in the Showtime television series '' Dexter'' and for starring in such films as '' Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer'', ...
), 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 now be seen as responsible for the murder of Van Doren. Burnside even appeals her case before the Supreme Court, arguing that without protection of sources then there is no freedom of the press, perhaps ultimately no democracy, but the court decides against him 5–4, citing the overriding concern of national security.
Eventually, Judge Hall accepts that Armstrong will never give in and divulge her source. And so, convinced that incarcerating her can serve no useful purpose, and since she has not been convicted of any offence, decides to release her from jail. On the day she is released, Dubois has the
U.S. Marshals
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforce ...
arrest her, and charges 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 prison facility, she reminisces about her time as a volunteer at Timmy's school: Once, on a field trip, she spoke to Van Doren's daughter, Alison. Alison innocently mentioned that her mother worked for "the government", and had recently gone to Venezuela on "business", thus revealing her as the original source.
Cast
*
Kate Beckinsale
Kathrin Romany Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress and model. After some minor television roles, her film debut was ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She appeared in British costume ...
as Rachel Armstrong
*
Matt Dillon
Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including an Oscar and Grammy nomination.
Dillon made his feature film debut in '' Over the Edge'' (1979) and established himself as a te ...
as Patton Dubois
*
Alan Alda
Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war co ...
as Albert Burnside
*
Vera Farmiga
Vera Ann Farmiga ( ; born August 6, 1973) is an American actress who is best known for portraying paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring Universe films '' The Conjuring'' (2013), '' The Conjuring 2'' (2016), '' Annabelle Co ...
as Erica Van Doren
*
Angela Bassett
Angela Evelyn Bassett (born August 16, 1958) is an American actress. She had her breakthrough with her portrayal of singer Tina Turner in the biopic ''What's Love Got to Do with It'' (1993), which garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award ...
as Bonnie Benjamin
*
David Schwimmer
David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, director and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom '' Friends'', for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Prime ...
as Ray Armstrong
*
Noah Wyle
Noah Strausser Speer Wyle (; born June 4, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as John Carter (ER), John Carter in the television series ''ER (TV series), ER'' (1994–2009), which earned him nominations for three Golden Glo ...
as Avril Aaronson
*
Floyd Abrams
Floyd Abrams (born in July 9, 1936) is an American attorney at Cahill Gordon & Reindel. He is an expert on constitutional law and has argued in 13 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Abrams represented ''The New York Times'' i ...
as Judge Hall
*
Preston Bailey
Preston Bailey (born July 25, 2000) is an American actor who started acting at the age of two. He is known for appearing in the Showtime television series '' Dexter'' and for starring in such films as '' Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer'', ...
as Timmy Armstrong
*
Rod Lurie
Rod Lurie ( he, רוד לוריא; born May 15, 1962) is an Israeli-American director, screenwriter, and former film critic.
Early life and career
The son of internationally syndicated cartoonist Ranan Lurie, he was born in Israel but moved to ...
as Journalist
Production
Attorney
Floyd Abrams
Floyd Abrams (born in July 9, 1936) is an American attorney at Cahill Gordon & Reindel. He is an expert on constitutional law and has argued in 13 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Abrams represented ''The New York Times'' i ...
had argued for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' 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.
Distribution
Release
![Nothing But the Truth25 (6920547644)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Nothing_But_the_Truth25_%286920547644%29.jpg)
The film received its world premiere at the
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...
on September 8, 2008, with the cast in attendance.
Yari Film Group
The Yari Film Group (YFG) is an independent film company headed by producer Bob Yari. The company deals in financing, production, acquisition, sales and distribution of theatrical feature films.
The Yari Film Group was formed in 2005 through t ...
was to give the film a
limited release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
in the United States (Los Angeles and New York City) on December 19, 2008, but due to the
Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...
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
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (abbreviated as SPHE) is the home video distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation.
Background
SPHE is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures lib ...
released the film on DVD on April 28, 2009.
Reception
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 in theatres, several critics who had seen it in advance screenings nonetheless published their reviews. , the film holds an 82% approval rating on the review aggregator 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 ...
, based on 60 reviews with an average rating of 6.76 out of 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
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 ...
, the film has a score of 64 out of 100, based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Manohla Dargis
Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Career
Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' 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."
Not all reviews were positive as ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' critic 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
''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment, launching the '' Law & Order'' franchise.
''Law & Order'' aired its entire run on NBC, premiering on ...
'' writer on deadline, scrambling the issues so thoroughly it's no longer clear what, if anything, the movie is meant to address."
Peter Travers
Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...
of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' 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
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' 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."
Accolades
References
External links
*
*
Official trailer
{{Saturn Award for Best DVD or Blu-ray Release
2008 films
2008 drama films
2000s English-language films
2000s political drama films
American films based on actual events
American courtroom films
American political drama films
Drama films based on actual events
Films about journalists
Films directed by Rod Lurie
Films scored by Larry Groupé
Films set in Washington, D.C.
Films shot in Tennessee
Political films based on actual events
Murder in films
Women in prison films
2000s American films