{"id":3037,"date":"2009-02-07T19:17:51","date_gmt":"2009-02-08T03:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=3037"},"modified":"2009-02-09T09:20:36","modified_gmt":"2009-02-09T17:20:36","slug":"nothing-but-the-truth-rod-lurie-2008-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=3037","title":{"rendered":"Nothing But The Truth (Rod Lurie, 2008):  U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by <a href=\"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?author=49\">Kathleen Amboy<\/a>. Viewed at the Arlington, Santa Barbara Film Festival.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; float: left\" src=\"https:\/\/images.allmoviephoto.com\/2008_Nothing_But_the_Truth\/2008_nothing_but_the_truth_004.jpg\" alt=\"nothing-but-truth\" width=\"325\" height=\"210\" \/><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1073241\/\" target=\"_new\">Nothing But the Truth<\/a><\/em> (or nothing like it) was the opening night film at the SBIFF. The plot for this film vaguely follows the true life account of the Lewis Libby\/Valerie Plame ordeal in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p>Kate Beckinsale is Rachel Armstrong (role of real life Judith Miller) a head strong reporter that runs with a scoop.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The scoop exposes the identity of a classified, covert CIA operative. <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>Who was her source?<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>This is the question that drives the plot which Rachel refuses to reveal.<\/p>\n<p>Vera Farmiga is Erica Van Doren (role of Valerie Plame) the CIA op who first denies the fact, and then tries in vain to reason with Rachel on exposing her source for safety reasons, but Rachel is adamant about protecting her source.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Dillon is Patton Dubois, a prosecutor who is determined to find the leak.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Rachel is jailed for several months, beaten in prison, her marriage falls apart, and she loses custody of her only child \u2013 but to top it all off, Van Doren (also a wife and mother) is killed because her identity is exposed through Rachel\u2019s scoop.<\/p>\n<p>The strength in the film comes from the talents of Angela Bassett as Bonnie (Rachel\u2019s Editor) and Alan Alda as Alan Burnside, Rachel\u2019s defense counsel.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The weakest links are by far Noah Wyle (counsel for the newspaper) and David Schwimmer (Rachel\u2019s slovenly husband). <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>Noah Wyle shook his head a bit too much every time he wanted to express anger \u2013 it\u2019s called acting Noah, just act angry!<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>David Schwimmer plays a non-chalant David Schwimmer through the entire film.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, back to the story.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The source is revealed (Lewis Libby character), but wait a minute \u2013 he\u2019s not the real source.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Rachel gets out of the slammer, then she\u2019s back in the slammer and then she ends up in prison for a couple of years!<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>We basically have to suffer through more unbelievable, ridiculous plot-line before we (much to our chagrin) find out who the real source is.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>At this point, without disclosing the real source, there is a sense of relief that Rachel is thrown in prison \u2013 for punishment out of sheer stupidity!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy. Viewed at the Arlington, Santa Barbara Film Festival. Nothing But the Truth (or nothing like it) was the opening night film at the SBIFF. The plot for this film vaguely follows the true life account of the Lewis Libby\/Valerie Plame ordeal in Washington, D.C. Kate Beckinsale is Rachel Armstrong (role of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}