TRUE STORY
DIRECTOR: Rupert Goold
CAST: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Felicity Jones, Robert John Burke, Ethan Suplee
CLASSIFICATION: 10-12 PG LP
RUNNING TIME: 99 minutes
RATING: ***
ON THE face of it, Jonah Hill and James Franco headlining a film screams stoner comedy, at least. Yet, this is anything but. Instead, it is an unsettling story about storytelling.
Hill plays disgraced New York Times journalist Michael Finkel, whose identity is appropriated by murder suspect Christian Longo (Franco). Once Longo is jailed and awaiting trial, Finkel befriends him in the hope of getting the exclusive story.
The story, plus people’s possible motivations, are given to us on a platter but, to the director’s credit, things are never prettified. In exchange for the story Longo wants lessons in how to use his words better, but the storyteller himself, Finkel, never sees through this request till it is too late.
We see Finkel being taken in by Longo’s charm and vulnerability because he really wants to get the story but, we never get into the mind of either man. We never learn why Longo killed his family or why Finkel digs himself even deeper by collaborating with the convicted child killer.
Most of the film is taken up by the dramatisation of how Finkel nuked his career, then skulks around his home and his relationship with Longo.
This isn’t so much taut cat-and-mouse thrilling encounter, as a disconcerting look at journalistic ethics and how we shape the story we put out to the world as our own. It also picks at the question of why people are so fascinated by crime stories, trying very hard to remind us that there are real people at the heart of our favourite police procedural podcasts.
Masanobu Takayanagi’s cinematography creates a big difference between Finkel’s snow-bound existence, Longo’s sterile prison environment and the flashbacks to Longo’s sun-lit family life.
Franco underplays the Longo character, turning in a chilling performance on the stand, while Hill struggles to play off Franco’s otherwise very passive performance. Unfortunately, Jones is criminally underused as Finkel’s long-suffering wife.
Though it might be about that murky realm where journalism and crime collide, the film gives us surface only, never delving deeper into the whys and wherefores; showing us what people did, yet telling us nothing.
It starts strong, but never builds up a sense of urgency and by the time it ends you are ready to move on.
If you liked Shattered Glass or The Debt, you will like this.