Review: Truth

Just prior to the 2004 American Presidential Election, “60 Minutes” producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) and her team report on the supposed controversy around then-US President George W. Bush’s military service record. Their investigation asserts that Bush used family connections to make sure he got a nice, safe gig at the National Guard rather than active duty during the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, when the story is put to air, Mapes, “60 Minutes”, top news anchor Dan Rather (Robert Redford), and station CBS end up the ones put under intense scrutiny. Dennis Quaid plays Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Charles, a Vietnam veteran and military consultant for CBS. Topher Grace is passionate researcher Mike Smith (who to Lt. Col. Charles might as well be a hippie), whilst Natalie Saleeba and David Lyons play senior producers Mary Murphy and Josh Howard, and Rachael Blake is CBS executive Betsy West. Bruce Greenwood and Nicholas Hope appear briefly as CBS president Andrew Heyward and a handwriting expert, respectively. Martin Sacks and American actor Dermot Mulroney turn up as a colonel and a member of the independent investigation board.

Whether this 2015 cinematic representation of Mary Mapes’ autobiography by writer-director James Vanderbilt (writer of “Zodiac” and co-writer of “White House Down”) is factually sound or not, I will leave up to others who know more about the subject than I. For me, I found this to be a pretty interesting look into how it doesn’t really matter if you’re right (i.e. The content of the documents was never said to be inaccurate), if your evidence actually doesn’t come across as credible and doesn’t bear close to scrutiny. I just felt that it hit similar beats to the earlier “The Insider”, and I couldn’t quite shake that film from my mind during this film, which ultimately is a little bit lesser in quality. There’s still a lot to like here, though, including Cate Blanchett in top-flight form as Mapes, and a supporting cast both local (the film was made here in Sydney at Blanchett’s request) and abroad that mostly impress. Dennis Quaid is a particular scene-stealer as CBS’ resident Vietnam veteran Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Charles, with the always rock-solid Stacy Keach and Aussie national treasure Noni Hazlehurst also having choice moments as the chief ‘smoking gun’ for CBS and Mapes, and his protective wife, respectively. Former “Play School” presenter Hazlehurst isn’t award-worthy or anything, but she’s always been an underrated actress and it’s just great to see her in a relatively big film holding her own opposite some pretty great company. By the way, Quaid has one rather extraordinary bit of dialogue about the first time Mapes tried to dig into Bush’s service record, which gives definite food for thought. As for blonde-haired Robert Redford, he doesn’t look or sound like the real Dan Rather, but he convinces enough as a Dan Rather-type, craggy-faced and authoritative. He gets the job done, even if he doesn’t really disappear into the role. I mean, who else would you cast? Dan Hedaya probably looks a little bit more like Rather, but as much as I like him, who the fuck wants to watch a movie with Dan Hedaya as Dan Rather when you can get Robert Redford? (For the record, Blanchett doesn’t look that much like her real-life counterpart, either). The majority of the Aussie cast acquit themselves pretty well and do better American accents than I’ve heard in other films (“Daybreakers” springs to mind), particularly solid are Andrew McFarlane (as Mapes’ lawyer), and a Texan-twanged Phillip Quast as Gov. Ben Barnes. Martin Sacks does a fine Texan accent, too. In regards to Quast, I actually didn’t recognise the stage actor and former “Play School” presenter actually, as Quast is much older, has put on weight and doesn’t sound anything like I remember him from my childhood at least, but he’s very fine here. I normally want to punch Topher Grace in the balls whenever I see him in a film, but here at least he’s doing his best-ever work and is well-cast. Aside from its slight similarity plot/narrative wise to “The Insider”, the one thing holding this film back a bit for me is that if ends up feeling like a story that should’ve been brought to the screen in about 2008-9 at the very latest. Mapes’ autobiography was published in 2005, so rightly or wrongly the subject matter feels just a tad like ‘old news’ now. Interesting, sure, but not quite breaking news (Apparently the film had been in development since 2007, which might explain a thing or two). Your mileage may be different on that, though. Mary Mapes and her investigative crew (whom debut director Vanderbilt definitely has some sympathy for) clearly messed up here by not making sure everything was air-tight before going to air with the story, and truthful or not, it’s hard to believe their story (In fact, you may consider it rather telling that Mapes pretty much hasn’t worked in the industry since this all happened), even if certain participants didn’t recant their statements.

This cinematic representation of these events proves to be solid, if ultimately not terribly earth-shattering or original. It’s a bit like “The Insider”, but perhaps a little drier and a little less enjoyable. Terrific performances from an eclectic and multi-national cast help a lot, especially Blanchett, Quaid, Keach, and Redford. Worth a look, definitely, though one should bear in mind the obviously biased point of view it is coming from.

Rating: B-