‘Truth’ has great acting, but is it truth?
Truth is based on CBS producer Mary Mapes’ book about how she and the network’s news anchor and legend Dan Rather ended up vilified and disgraced when a negative, election-time George W. Bush story aired with unverified facts.
It sounded interesting until I saw Dan Rather on the Today Show a week before the film’s release gushing over the movie. The next day Robert Redford — who plays Rather — said he rather liked it too.
At that point, you know the film is skewed.
James Vanderbilt writes and directs, and his script is truthful about the incident. He casts the always excellent Cate Blanchett as Mapes. She, Redford, Topher Grace (That 70s Show), Dennis Quaid and a supporting cast tell the story of how the documents used to skewer Bush were likely fake. But the movie takes great pains to continue to push that Bush really did get political favors to get into the National Guard, and that he probably wasn’t a very good soldier, and that those political favors kept him from having to go into combat in Vietnam.
That may or may not be true, but the movie’s liberal, anti-Republican bent ends up preachy and defends the biggest journalism no-no of all: bias.
Check out Mr. Movies’ other reviews at www.tricityherald.com/entertainment/movies-news-reviews/mr-movie/.
Truth
Director: James Vanderbilt
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Elizabeth Moss, Stacy Keach, Dermot Mulroney
Mr. Movie rating: 2 1/2 stars
Rated R for mature themes, language. It’s playing at Regal’s Columbia Center 8.
5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen.
4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it’s your type of movie.
3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on DVD.
2 stars to 1 star: Don’t bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself.
This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 6:14 AM with the headline "‘Truth’ has great acting, but is it truth?."