'True Story': When the facts don't matter as much as the tale
Professional query: They actually drink beer and play poker for cash in the newsroom of the New York Times? That's what's going on as the camera tracks hotshot reporter Michael Finkel (Jonah Hill), just back from exposing the slave trade in Africa, in the opening minutes of True Story. Sure, it's a minor detail, but it's not the only thing that strains credulity in this tale of redemption, invention, and familicide.
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Professional query: They actually drink beer and play poker for cash in the newsroom of the New York Times?
That's what's going on as the camera tracks hotshot reporter Michael Finkel (Jonah Hill), just back from exposing the slave trade in Africa, in the opening minutes of True Story. Sure, it's a minor detail, but it's not the only thing that strains credulity in this tale of redemption, invention, and familicide.
Directed by newcomer Rupert Goold and adapted from Finkel's 2005 book, the autobiographical True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa, the film wastes no time showing how its central characters are running on ego and lies. Finkel, with a string of high-profile investigative pieces to his credit, thinks he's being summoned to the editor's office for good news. "I have a hunch it rhymes with Schulitzer," he says, oozing arrogance.
Instead, he's about to be fired for making stuff up.
Cut to Mexico, where a guy who looks a lot like James Franco checks into a hotel, then picks up a girl. He says his name is Michael Finkel, and that he's a reporter for the New York Times. The next morning, he's being arrested and extradited - charged with the murder of his wife and three young children. His real name is Christian Longo. He's from Oregon. He worked at a Starbucks.
The real Finkel, who has retreated, reputation ruined, to the cozy Montana ranch he shares with his wife (Felicity Jones), hears about his fake namesake and smells a story. Finkel heads west to meet Longo, and the two men bond. Longo, who insists he is innocent, agrees to give Finkel an exclusive. Finkel agrees to give Longo tips on writing.
Soul-baring interviews ensue. So do the flashbacks (unreliable narrator, anyone?). And lots of scenes of Finkel banging out pages, on the phone with his publisher, getting encouraging looks from his lovely university researcher wife. (Jones' role is truly a waste, and in an effort to make it something more than it is, the actress gets her own prison-cell meetup with Longo. Maybe this really happened, but even if it did, it feels totally bogus here.)
Like so many stories about killers and the cops or reporters who hunt them down, True Story serves up one of those we're-not-so-different-you-and-I scenarios.
Hill and Franco - castmates in the far more credible apocalyptic comedy This Is the End - exchange meaningful stares in their sessions together, sizing each other up, looking for common ground, and thinking they've found it. Who's being manipulated here? The man charged with stuffing his kids in a suitcase? Or the guy accused of conflating characters and fabricating events, desperately looking for a way to reclaim his credibility, his livelihood? Truth is on the line.
Never mind the facts. True Story, slick and shaky, doesn't know where the truth lies.
True Story ** (Out of four stars)
Directed by Rupert Goold. With James Franco, Jonah Hill, Felicity Jones. Distributed by Fox Searchlight.
Running time: 1 hour, 40 mins.
Parent's guide: R (violence, profanity, adult themes).
Playing at: Area theaters.EndText
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