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Nothing But the Truth, to borrow from the title of another of Rod Lurie’s films, could have been a contender.
A gripping, intelligent political thriller, it exhibited all the DNA of a classy, commercial success: A gutsy premise, taut storytelling and a pair of awards-calibre performances from its stars, Kate Beckinsale and Vera Farmiga. Yet late last year, after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, its studio, The Yari Film Group, filed for bankruptcy. For Lurie’s movie, the result was devastating. Following a too-brief obligatory run in New York and L.A. theatres to qualify for Oscars but with zero marketing muscle, the film all but vanished into the ether and only next week makes its way to the masses on DVD. Moviegoers shouldn’t be discouraged by the stigma of a straight-to-DVD release, however. Truth stands shoulder-to-shoulder with such top-tier dramas as State of Play and deserves to find an audience.
“It left a bitter taste in my mouth,” Lurie concedes now, despite the positive buzz the film has generated online and on the festival circuit.
Both Beckinsale and Farmiga, he believes, could have at least netted Academy Award nominations. After all, presumably one of the reasons Beckinsale — best recognized for the Underworld franchise — signed on to the modestly-budgeted indie was to show she’s capable of flexing more than just her leather-clad monster-slaying muscles.
“She put a lot of effort into it,” Lurie says. “And then ka-powie … Vera’s disappointed too. I think she could have won the Oscar. A lot of people worked really hard on this film.”
Starting with Lurie himself, who previously directed 2000’s The Contender, which earned Joan Allen an Oscar nomination for her role as a vice-presidential candidate whose sexual past is scrutinized.
Similarly, Nothing But the Truth is a work of fiction inspired by recent events — specifically the Bush-era case of Valerie Plame and Judith Miller. Plame was a CIA agent outed in the media after her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, criticized the Bush administration over the war in Iraq. Miller was the New York Times scribe jailed for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the leak.
In the movie, Beckinsale plays a Washington, D.C. newspaper columnist who reveals the identity of a CIA agent (Farmiga) and is then imprisoned when she won’t reveal her source. “These were strong, complex female roles, which is a real signature of Rod’s work,” says Farmiga.
In the fall of 2007, Sun Media was invited to the set of the film in Memphis. There, Lurie explained the origins of the story. “When I did The Contender, I was fascinated by the Clarence Thomas hearings and I remember saying to myself, as I was watching, ‘What if Clarence Thomas was a woman?’ … As I was watching the Plame and Miller thing unfold, I turned to my wife and said, ‘You know what would be interesting? What if Judith Miller and Valerie Plame had kids and they went to school together? And what if Miller had actually written the piece?’ ”
But Farmiga makes it clear her character isn’t a thinly disguised impersonation of the woman who inspired the script. “I’m not Valerie Plame in the movie. It’s not even based on her character. She has an entirely different support system and doesn’t have the great marriage Valerie seems to have … But she was constantly on my mind.”
Explained Lurie, “It’s very different (from reality), but it’s certainly rooted in it. But it’s like Law & Order. You watch Law & Order and the first half of every episode is quote-unquote ‘ripped from the headlines’ and then they take their own path.”