The film explores that secret experiment before Killian documents (also known as 'Rathergate') in the days leading up to the 2004 presidential election. In this experiment, veteran broadcaster Dan Rather and CBS News president Mary Mapes choose to show a clip in 60 minutes revealing how he avoided President Bush enlisted to Vietnam in his life one day while the resulting repercussions appear in this context.
"Truth" is ... mesmerizing, entirely because of Blanchett; this is one of those movie-star performances in which every detail, every gesture feels right.
Truth has an air of a film that thinks it's important. The story is fascinating but it would have been better served to portray it as what it actually is - a cautionary tale about quickie journalism and acting before you have solid proof.
Truth is all about Blanchett, who really shines in-and carries-an otherwise bad good movie. (Or is it a good bad movie?) There are a lot of themes introduced, but are stated in rather sweeping gestures.
Robert Redford plays Dan Rather. I know. Just reading that out loud seems odd -- but Redford does a terrific job of capturing Rather's on-air cadence and his larger-than-life off-air persona.
Truth, as much as I agree with many of its contentions, fails to hold itself to the same level of scrutiny as it does those going after Mapes and Rather, and as such never feels as authentic as it should have.
