With inevitable comparisons with fellow journalistic film “Spotlight”, this latest screenplay based on a true storyline from the American noughties decade had much to live up to, but did “Truth” stand on its own two fabulous film feet or did it fall short of is motion picture nemesis?
This year has already seen a hefty handful of true story screenplays, some scoring highly with their American aimed audiences along with those in the wider world, “Spotlight” supposedly at the top of the pile, while nipping at its feet was “The Big Short”, both films being recognised with award achievements from both sides of the Atlantic, a respectable five BAFTA’s & OSCAR’s between them, while “Concussion”, another hard hitting drama come thriller based on real life evets in the American heartland went without and while wasn’t ever quite the match for the other two, affirmed a desire & trend within in movie making, stateside at least, to cover a decade of these home truths that hit the headlines in the noughties. Yet while both “The Big Short” & “Concussion” centred around separate industry subjects, the former in the banking field, while the latter in the area of sports pathology, with “Spotlight” squarely within journalism, it was inevitable that a tale such as “Truth”, also firmly 
within the journalism field, yes admittedly in television rather than in newspapers, would inevitable be compared, especially given the close proximity of their releases onto the cinema circuit. Indeed, “Truth” was always going to have an uphill battle convincing the critics of its comparable credentials due to the amazing acclaim “Spotlight” had achieved, yet given both the storyline as well as the cast of this latest gritty true story screenplay, was the average review ratings a fair reflection trailer blazed tale or did “Truth” actually impress enough to stand tall in this poppy field of fabulous films.
Well, before we answer that among other questions, let’s take a look at the plot of this picture along with what we believe is a commanding cast combination, the “Truth” timeline planted firmly around the presidential elections in 2004, the months preceding George W Bush’s return to power seeing team of journalists within CBS News break a story that Bush skipped military service in the 1970’s, followed by a series of claims of inaccuracies of the authenticity of both the teams claims and the documents backing it up. Based on the real life situation television production producer Mary Mapes (played by Cate Blanchett) faces, along with CBS news anchor Dan Rather (portrayed by Robert Redford) and Mapes’s team, the claims that the documents fed to the team by their main source, Bill Burkett (Stacey Keach), were fabricated years
after on Microsoft Word are exposed by rival television company ABC news on the back of pro Bush bloggers claims, CBS eventually caving in, withdrawing their claims in a live broadcast made by Rather. In the fallout that follows, an internal investigation is called for by the broadcaster’s president, Andrew Heyward (played by Bruce Greenwood) and is headed up by tough interrogator Lawrence Lanpher (Dermot Mulroney) every member of Mapes’s team in the firing line, including researchers Mike Smith (Topher Grace), Lt. Colonel Roger Charles (Dennis Quaid) & Lucy Scott (Elizabeth Moss), while with twists & turns to the plot & other influential CBS players coming down to bear, it’s a substantive story creatively crafted for the cinema.
So what of the cast? Well, if we were to be drawn into making comparisons with “Spotlight”, we reckon that the cast credentials of “Truth” are every bit as strong, in some ways more so, phenomenal performances returned by Greenwood, Keach, Mulroney & Quaid, while as Michael Keaton did for us in “Spotlight”, Topher Grace does the same in “Truth” a mediocre at best contribution actually detracted from this movies majesty. Yet while we got the impression that Blanchett was awfully over acting in the first few sequences of this spectacular screenplay, the sense that she was trying to distinguish her performance here from that simply stunning showing in “Carol”, the chemistry with Robert Redford worked extremely well, both displaying their performing prowess’s to pitch perfect precision, very much portraying the special relationship their 
characters, Mary Mapes & Dan Rather enjoyed in real life. Indeed, with Bruce Greenwoods convincing authoritative acting out of his CBS presidential role, Dennis Quaid’s brilliantly balanced interpretation of his researcher role and Dermot Mulroney’s powerful performance are all huge highlights of this political docudrama. As for “Truth” itself, yes we found occasional moments when we fell into the comparison trap, but the film does definitely stand on its own two feet, amazing acting, a strong storyline & real life clips edited into the screenplay do stand it tall in the recent packed poppy field of fellow films which the critics are at pains to compare, we going as far to say that, contrary to popular belief, “Truth” scores in the high eighties percentile in our books, meaning this journalistic joyride will be heading for our DVD collection in due course. (DISCO MATT)
