Title: True Story
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Rupert Goold
Starring: Jonah Hill, James Franco, Felicity Jones
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins

What It Is: When successful writer Mike Finkel writes a story about abused children in Africa he thinks it’ll be the highlight of his career at the New York Times. It turns out to be just  the opposite. You see Mike fabricated some of the facts in his story. Simultaneously accused murderer Christian Longo is caught in Mexico using Mike’s name as an alias, despite the fact that Mike doesnt know it. Now the two men who don’t know one meet and the story is one that true, and still stranger than fiction.

What We Think: Despite strong performances from Hill and Franco this particular film falls to pieces in the third act. It’s almost as if the filmmakers said it’s cool we’ve got enough footage let’s just put this to bed. So what we get for an ending is a convoluted and rushed explanation of what happened to Longo. In addition there’s just a boring pace about the whole affair. Sadly it’s a pace that doesn’t endear itself to the source material…at all. Hopefully you can stay awake during this one!

Our Grade: C-, I’m not sure I can completely recommend this one. It just is not that great a film. Sadly it is a film that had potential. Potential which has all been squandered. More specifically I really wanted this to be good so that these two guys could possibly get more dramatic work together. With this being the result I don’t think it’s going to happen. Nonetheless True Story should’ve been good but is instead a huge disappointment.