Fans of Kate Beckinsale, Vera Farmiga, and or Matt Dillon and Alan Alda, should take note. There’s a ton of scenes from Rod Lurie’s upcoming political journalism/injustice drama, “Nothing But The Truth,” online.
“Nothing But The Truth,” uses the Valerie Plame case – the now-famous CIA covert agent who was outed by the Washington Times. New York Times journalist Judith Miller had nothing to do with that story, but evidently was in possession of relevant evidence, but was subsequently jailed for contempt of court for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury.
Lurie’s tale uses that story, hybridizes it (the journalist refusing to testify is also the one who outed her) and uses it as a jumping off point to discuss and explore the nature of free speech, First Amendment laws and the idea of being jailed for your principles (the principle of reporter’s privilege and protecting your source).
We saw it at the Toronto Film Festival and initially liked it, as some of it was rousing in its oratory rhetoric, but since cooled to it (there’s just been a lot of other films that have impacted us way deeper this year), but it is decent (though the ending may make or break it for some) and does boast strong performances by Vera Farmiga and Alan Alda, but especially an Oscar-worthy one by Kate Beckinsale (we sort of forgot she was capable of this high quality of work, though we’re skeptical she’ll get noticed).
This is as probably as good as place as any to mention that Coby Jones co-wrote (with Lurie) an original song for the film called “Nothing But The Truth” (naturally) that plays in the film’s closing credits. You can hear it here. InContention calls it “soulful,” but truthfully, it’s rather corny lying somewhere between generic indie-rock and new-country. Or at least, it’s nothing to write home about. “Nothing But The Truth” comes out December 19.