There’s nothing inherently super wrong with Rod Lurie’s “Nothing But The Truth” and Brian Goodman’s “What Doesn’t Kill You,” they’re decent to OK dramas with some great notes, some tired cliches and some excellent performances.
Both these posters from the Yari Film group are kind of great, but both of them make ’em look much stronger than they are.
Vera Farmiga and Kate Beckinsale are formidable in ‘Truth,’ especially the latter, but an Oscar nomination seems out of reach only because the film is so under-the-radar (Alan Alda and Matt Dillon display some pretty admirable turns as well). At least right now. The end of the film is dealbreaker for some and some groaned out loud and or rolled their eyes at the conclusion’s “reveal.” It worked for us and we thought it was one of the better conventional dramas we saw at the Toronto Film Festival, but it’s mostly left us. The best part is Beckinsale; she’s Oscar worthy, but again, it seems dubious that she’ll get one. However, the NYTimes says the most “striking” performance belongs to Farmiga. The film should be screening for critics too and they seem to be liking it more than we did so far. It’s got an 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“What Doesn’t Kill You” is a been-there, done-that gritty crime drama about two South Boston brothers (Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo) based on the life of the director Goodman – a career low-end thug who almost lost his family to drug addiction and severe jail time. We almost wish the film started in the third act when Ruffalo is released and is thrown back in to the pond of society; it’s heartbreaking and the actor is phenomenal, he displays the best chops since, “You Can Count On Me,” but we can’t really go to bat for the rest of the film.
“What Doesn’t Kill You” hits in limited release this weekend (December 12) and “Nothing But The Truth” comes out in limited release, the following weekend December 19. It’s such a weird year with no real frontrunners, maybe some people will respond to either film, but if we had to pick one it’d be ‘Truth.’
Jeffrey Wells is going to bat for both films, and says they are both “less concerned with your high-concept, robo-marketed, big-budget stylistic kapow material” which is true, but doesn’t mean they’re fantastic or must-see either.