Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Jonah Hill, James Franco, Felicity Jones, Maria Dizzia, Ethan Suplee, Conor Kikot, Charlotte Driscoll, Stella Rae Payne, Robert John Burke, Byron Jennings, Betty Gilpin, Seth Barrish, Robert Stanton, Michael Countryman, Steve Routman, Genevieve Angelson, Adam Mucci, David Wilson Barnes, William Jackson Harper, Sam Rosen, David Pittu, Auden Thornton, Edward James Hyland, Mara Hobel, Ngo Okafor, Maryann Plunket.
Investigative journalism is all about that one story that can make your name forever. Like Woodrow and Bernstein uncovering the despicable actions of President Nixon and the Watergate affair, every journalist dreams of that one big scoop that will change the world, or at the very least have people talking about them in glowing terms for decades to come. Some journalists are forever entwined in the subject they have uncovered, some get so close they can feel the facts melt through their hands and others, others get taken down a road that is both dark and illegitimate, they get played by the system in search of the True Story.
Truth is subjective, what is accurate for one person, might be a little more grey in another’s hands and in the relationship between the journalist chasing the story and an accused killer, that accuracy can become twisted and misplaced.
Based upon the book by Michael Finkel, Rupert Gold’s and David Kajganich’s screenplay looks at the way both former New York Times journalist and convicted murderer Christian Longo both came to rely upon each other in a type of symbiotic dance, one that trapped both of them to the point where truth arguably became an easy commodity and one in which saved one’s career and the other damned him to spend his life on death row.
Portraying a murderer is never easy, especially when it is one who has actually stalked the Earth and lived and breathed amongst us but for James Franco this film has to be seen as one of his top film performances as the cold and calculating Christian Longo and arguably only second to his portrayal as Allen Ginsberg in Howl. The delicate nudge in which he places Jonah Hill as Michael Finkel into the arena of believing his story, his pre-fabricated lies sees both men shine, even if it still might be hard for some cinema fans to believe in Jonah Hill as a serious straight actor and not one who would rather be embroiled in the comedic element of the profession.
The let down comes in the space away from the two men’s meetings in the jail, Felicity Jones as Michael Finkel’s wife doesn’t exude enough passion in the role and in many ways could be seen as aping the cold emotion of Christian Longo himself. The coldness of the film doesn’t just extend to the lack of empathy to be found in the surrounding players but there is a deep seated fear that the lack of truth played across the board might not see the film get the best response that it could have asked for, especially for such an emotive subject and crime.
One person’s truth is another’s distraction and whilst James Franco excels, the point of True Story can become somewhat lost in its all too hurried ending. A film that could have delivered so much more but in the end it becomes being more story that true.
Ian D. Hall