Review: True Story

Jonah Hill plays journalist Michael Finkel, whose promising career takes a massive hit when it’s uncovered that on his latest piece for The New York Times has probably had a very casual relationship with actual fact. Fired and disgraced, he receives a lifeline of sorts when he hears of a bizarre story that he has an unwitting connection to: Devoted family man Christian Longo (James Franco) has been arrested and charged with the murder of his wife and their young children. The strange part? When arrested, Longo gave his name as Mike Finkel. Curious as to why a man he has never met would use his name when arrested for these heinous crimes, Finkel decides to pay Longo (who plans to plead not guilty and insists that he’s innocent) a visit in prison. It turns out that Longo is an admirer of Finkel’s writing ability and offers to let Finkel write Longo’s story on two conditions: 1) The book be published only after the trial, and 2) Finkel is to teach Longo what he knows about writing. Thus begins an extremely unusual friendship, but with Finkel’s wife (Felicity Jones) getting increasingly worried about their bond, and all of the twists and turns in the case, that friendship (of a sort) is an especially uneasy one. Ethan Suplee plays the reporter who calls Finkel to tell him about Longo, and Robert John Burke plays a pissed off police detective who wants Finkel to grow a conscience and move to their side of the fence.

 

It’s a shame that some people had a hard time taking frequent comedic actors James Franco and Jonah Hill seriously in this very serious 2015 crime story from director Rupert Goold (his debut feature film) and his co-writer David Kajganich (writer of two ill-fated projects, the misfire sci-fi flick “The Invasion”, and the little-seen but enjoyable horror flick “Blood Creek”). Based on the memoir by the real-life Michael Finkel, there’s nothing remotely funny about it, but as far as I’m concerned neither was their previous comedic collaboration, “This Is the End”. This is a much higher quality production and once again shows that the very erratic (or to be more euphemistic, eclectic) James Franco can, when it’s his wont, do really terrific work.

 

I love a good true crime story and this is a pretty good one, I must say. It’s one of those irresistible stories that is so bizarre that it can’t be anything other than true. I found it a bit slow-moving for something that only runs a bit over 90 minutes, but I don’t mean to suggest the film is boring. It’s gripping all the way, it just seems strange that a film so short takes its sweet time setting things up. It’s especially fascinating whenever Franco is on screen. As the accused murderer of his own immediate family, Franco gives a perfectly unreadable performance as Christian Longo. That’s an entirely appropriate approach to take, and Franco’s gripping turn here will make you angry that he’s not this good and making films this good more often. It’s fascinating to watch him and try to figure this guy out. He also has one speech in this that is almost too much to bear. You’ll know it when you hear it. I’m not entirely convinced that Jonah Hill deserves to be a two-time Oscar nominee (he did an unbearable John Turturro impersonation in “The Wolf of Wall Street”), but he’s perfectly fine, if unspectacular here. Meanwhile, although the absolutely lovely Felicity Jones and underrated Robert John Burke don’t get a whole lot to do here, they are both solid. I still think “Dust Devil” (with Burke essentially in the title role) is a shamefully unheralded film of genuine uniqueness and fascination and he makes a colourless role here somewhat more colourful through sheer talent. Look out for former ‘It Girl’ Gretchen Mol as Finkel’s editor, as I swear the girl hasn’t aged in more than a decade.

 

It’s not a great film and a bit slow, but it’s an interesting one and Franco is brilliant. Definitely one for ‘true crime’ buffs, this one will have you talking and debating after the whole thing is over. The postscript information is just as amazing as anything in the film, if somewhat contradictory to the final scenes of the film (admittedly a bit of a cock-up on the filmmakers’ part).

 

Rating: B-