Truth **** (2015, Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Elisabeth Moss, Bruce Greenwood, Stacy Keach) – Movie Review

Writer-director James Vanderbilt’s brilliant newsroom drama provides great acting opportunities and tells an important story about the 2004 CBS 60 Minutes show’s report on its investigation of President George W Bush’s military service. In America, the story of The Killian Documents controversy in the days leading up to the 2004 presidential election was known as Rathergate.

The subsequent wave of criticism about the report’s authenticity cost beloved veteran TV newscaster anchorman Dan Rather and CBS News head Mary Mapes their careers when they chose to air a segment on 60 Minutes exposing how President Bush avoided being drafted to Vietnam through his father’s political advantages.

This is intelligent, poignant, relevant stuff. It is truthful stuff too, though it is based on Mapes’s book, which might make it seem a bit biased. It seems as though she deserves her say now.

Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett give urgent, mesmerising performances as Rather and Mapes – both of them are on stunning form – and there’s room for Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Elisabeth Moss, Bruce Greenwood and Stacy Keach to shine in top-quality turns too.

The winner of no awards whatsoever, the movie somehow got lost in awards season, overshone by the similar-minded Spotlight, but that’s a shame. It deserves its own place in the spotlight and many awards. It gets my vote. Though it’s a very American story, and we hardly know Dan Rather here in the UK, it has a universal meaning and appeal.

It’s writer Vanderbilt’s confident and assured debut as director.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review

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