Truth

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Truth stars the always-compelling Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes, an American television journalist investigating the less-than-perfect military national service record of George W Bush. Directed by James Vanderbilt, the film also features Robert Redford as CBS news anchor Dan Rather, Mapes’s colleague, but the casting cannot save a slightly ho-hum story that crosses the Atlantic badly. The story takes place just before the 2004 presidential election, with an exposé on the60 Minutes programme of Bush’s apparently preferential treatment by the Texas Air National Guard, as he failed to turn up for training. However, the typewritten documents detailing these allegations were photocopied, and immediately their veracity was attacked by Bush’s supporters. Mapes and Rather took the hit, despite the substance of their allegations being true, and were forced to revoke the story. The office-based drama has limited thrills, and in these terrifying days when the Trump campaign has taken true and false to surreal heights, it all seems small beer.
James Vanderbilt, 15, 125min