True Story ***½ (2015, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Felicity Jones) – Movie Review

There’s lots of fascinating interest in this creepy and provocative True Story about New York Times reporter Michael Finkel, who gets out of the frying pan and into the fire after he is disgraced and fired over fabricating a story.

He then eagerly grabs his second chance when he is told about accused killer Christian Longo, who is alleged to have killed his wife and daughters. Finkel is just the right man to interview him, as Longo has bizarrely taken on Finkel’s identity.

Finkel starts to interview Longo in jail, and this turns into a bizarre game of cat-and-mouse as Longo tries to tell his possibly not True Story, wooing and manipulating the journalist while awaiting his murder trial that he hopes will result in his freedom.

Though a bit too signalled in a couple of places, the story is riveting and you are never really sure where it is heading. It is exciting as a real-life thriller as well as thought-provoking as a debate on ethics, making it a worthy, worthwhile oddity to have around in our largely ethics-free world.

A couple of jokers in the actor pack – James Franco and Jonah Hill – play it for real, and have the acting chops to make their characters and therefore the film work. Franco does deranged brilliantly, and Hill is great in the star part as the dodgy journalist with a heart of gold.

Sad to say, Britain’s Felicity Jones draws the short straw as Hill’s unhappy wife. She’s gratuitously seen running and also in her bath, but only has two effective scenes in the movie. Though so not American, she makes them count, but they are really so extraneous to the main story that you wonder why they are there at all.

It’s all about Hill and Franco, and the camera shoots relentlessly on big close-ups of their carefully expressive faces, making every twitch and blink of the actors speak volumes, not to mention the odd wink. Robert John Burke gets a little look in as the creepy prosecutor trying to manipulate Hill, and Byron Jennings is effective as the cool, calm Judge Odenkirk presiding over the murder trial.

Director Rupert Goold’s screenplay (with David Kajganich) is based on Michael Finkel’s book, so we have no idea whether this is indeed the True Story. Although as it’s only a movie, and a pretty good one, that probably doesn’t matter to most movie-goers. It does leave you with an odd taste and some brain food as well.

It’s the second film together of Franco and Hill after This Is the End (2013).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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