La recensione su Una sola verità

I giornalisti sono propagandisti mistificatori senza scrupoli. Il mestiere è quello. Ma perché siano creduti dalle loro ignare vittime bisogna alimentare il mito  del giornalista eroe. Ed è ciò che questo film fa e pure male a leggere la seguente recensione di chi l'ha visto:

ATTENZIONE CONTIENE SPOILER:

"Nothing But The Truth" should be studied by screenwriters and directors for years. It is a perfect illustration of a writer/director not thinking clearly about his topic, and choosing gimmickry and preaching over clarity and intelligence.

When it was revealed (in a marvelous M. Night Shyamalan-style twist ending that turned the film from preachy to idiotic) that the source of the story was the daughter of the CIA agent, I threw my Netflix envelope across the room and yelled, "Thanks for wasting my time, Rod!" Let's pick it apart:

– When a reporter chooses to not reveal a source, they do so for very good reasons – among which are usually fear for the source's safety, career, prosecution, harassment, reputation or otherwise.

- Given that the reporter knew that the child could not be prosecuted, threatened or put in any negative situation other than a firm scolding from her mother, Beckinsale's character had no single reason to report the story, much less "protect her source," other than personal professional gain. Therefore, in the end, her character becomes a succubus, leeching off of the innocent mentionings of a child. Furthermore, revealing her source to the federal prosecutor would have led to nothing, and everyone could have gone on with their lives.

- Of course, a rational, thoughtful (Vassar and Columbia-educated, allegedly), kind, empathetic person would have spoken to the CIA agent mother about her daughter's slip-up, suggested that she be more careful about what she tells her, and decided that there was nothing positive to be gained from this story being published.

- Instead, we are asked to accept that Rachel Armstrong heroically stands by her principle of not revealing her source. In turn, she alienates and divorces her husband, loses custody of her son, gets the agent killed, and thus inflicts far more damage on the "source" (the daughter) than any revelation of her identity could have done.

In the end, this is a tragic example of a writer/director believing too much in his politics and his prose, and not enough in the power of sound analysis. The fact that no one in the development process pointed this fatal error out and had it struck from the script is sad, but not surprising. Hollywood is good at overlooking incompetence.

But to be fair, the reason I gave this movie 2 stars is that some credit should be given to Lurie's sense of technical direction, timing, cinematography, etc. Technically, the film was well executed. And the acting was very good. But for some reason, the term 'lipstick on a pig' comes to mind.

It's going to take a while for this palm print on my forehead to wear off.