An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Evening Standard rating
Reader rating
The Toronto Film Festival has developed a reputation for being a launching pad for Oscar-night winners.
With her bravura turn in Rod Lurie's engrossing political drama Nothing But The Truth, Kate Beckinsale has staked a strong claim for her first Academy Award nomination.
The native Londoner, who now lives in Los Angeles, excels as Washington DC journalist Rachel Armstrong who spends two years behind bars for refusing to cave in to government pressure to reveal her source.
Writer-director Rod Lurie, himself a former journalist and high school contemporary of Barack Obama, has loosely based his film, which premiered last night, on the imprisonment of New York Times writer Judith Miller in 2005 for contempt of court after she refused to testify to a Grand Jury investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. (Joe Wilson, Plame's husband and former acting ambassador to Iraq, had been openly critical of the Iraqi invasion.)
Substitute Venezuela for Iraq, Armstrong for Miller and Erica Van Doren (Vera Farmiga) for Plame.
Having been initially hopeful that her scoop blowing Van Doren's cover as a CIA operative would "bring down the White House", Armstrong refuses to buckle to the attempts of prosecutor Patton Dubois (Matt Dillon) to persuade her to divulge the source and is imprisoned.
Lurie's fictional variations on the complex Miller-Plame case blur the boundaries of his characters' personal and professional lives and allows Nothing But The Truth to escape from its source material.
What if the daughters of Armstrong and Van Doren were classmates? What if upholding the tradition of not betraying a source resulted in Armstrong deserting her child?
Lurie clearly supports the notion that journalists should not be imprisoned for refusing to disclose their sources.
But his primary focus is on delivering an absorbing political yarn and not a half-baked civics class in the vein of Robert Redford's dire 2007 Lions For Lambs.
The climactic brazen twist reinforces the idea that Armstrong's white knight is splashed with shades of grey.
Spared from having to proclaim sanctimonious speeches on media ethics, Beckinsale adroitly handles her character's journey from newsroom to courtroom and prison.
As her case steadily slips from public consciousness and her daughter is left in the hands of her philandering husband (David Schwimmer), Beckinsale's robustness crumbles at the consequence of her decision to put principle before expediency.
Lurie is an actor's director and, in addition to Beckinsale, he elicits superb performances from Farmiga and Alan Alda as Armstrong's silvertongued lawyer Albert.
Cinematographer Alik Sakharov supplies a bleached-hued look, making the surroundings as edgy and ambiguous as the characters that inhabit them.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
A great movie which was unfortunately shelved from theaters due to the economy crisis. All cast members gave a fantastic performance especially Kate Beckinsale (which was denied a well deserver Oscar nomination). All in, it is well worth the time spent watching this.
- Alison Teh, KL, Malaysia
Any director who can make Alan Alda watchable is deserving of respect and Rod Lurie succeeds here in spades. Portraying the consummate self-absorbed and jaded Washington trial lawyer, Alda almost makes up for all of his overly-earnest, sanctimonious roles since he joined the cast of M.A.S.H so many years ago. Of the 24 films we saw at TIFF his year, Nothing But the Truth rates as the most pleasant surprise. Having read so little about it ahead of time, we were absolutely blown away by Kate Beckinsale's performance - Oscar-worthy indeed. And Vera Famiga is outstanding as well. Matt Dillon as the smarmy, ambitious prosecuting attorney displays a maturity that he has rarely shown. Lurie's experience as a journalist is apparent throughout as he shows us how the ideals of the fourth estate can succumb to the financial realities of the modern newspaper.
- Wiseacre, Toronto, Canada
Tonight:
8°c
