X
- 2016
- R
- HBO Max
- 1 h 33 m
- 2016
- R
- HBO Max
- 1 h 33 m
Summary Defense attorney Richard Ramsay (Keanu Reeves) takes on a personal case when he swears to his widowed friend, Loretta Lassiter (Renée Zellweger), that he will keep her son Mike (Gabriel Basso) out of prison. Charged with murdering his father, Mike initially confesses to the crime. But as the trial proceeds, chilling evidence about the ki...
Directed By: Courtney Hunt
Written By: Nicholas Kazan
- 2016
- R
- HBO Max
- 1 h 33 m
- 2016
- R
- HBO Max
- 1 h 33 m
The Whole Truth
46
5.4
Where to Watch
Summary Defense attorney Richard Ramsay (Keanu Reeves) takes on a personal case when he swears to his widowed friend, Loretta Lassiter (Renée Zellweger), that he will keep her son Mike (Gabriel Basso) out of prison. Charged with murdering his father, Mike initially confesses to the crime. But as the trial proceeds, chilling evidence about the ki...
Directed By: Courtney Hunt
Written By: Nicholas Kazan
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
46
13% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
80% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
7% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
46
13% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
80% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
7% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
This engaging courtroom drama aces the trick of grounding its ludicrousness in a convincing facsimile of reality.
While it does fall victim to a number of genre tropes, it is fronted by a believable Keanu Reeves and a pleasantly deceitful Renee Zellweger. Plus, an agreeable performance from the defendant character, played by Gabriel Basso, keeps the story pulsating.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 User Ratings
5.4
13% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
80% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
7% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 User Ratings
5.4
13% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
80% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
7% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
The Whole Truth is a moderately clever, reasonably entertaining courtroom drama, which is only a problem given the talent involved with bringing something this middle-of-the-road to the screen.
Ultimately, there’s nothing offensively bad here—other than a waste of talent who should be doing better work—but it’s so forgettable that you’ll have trouble remembering if you saw it or not when you scroll past it on cable in a few months.
Hunt, whose debut feature was “Frozen River,” has a steadfastly classicist approach to tried-and-true genre storytelling that’s admirable, but instead of building tension, The Whole Truth lets it bleed out.
The Whole Truth plays like an especially claustrophobic courtroom procedural, drably photographed and generically framed.
A guaranteed cure for insomnia, an abomination called The Whole Truth is a courtroom movie that looks like a colorized version of an old Perry Mason TV show, starring Renée Zellweger’s new face and Keanu Reeves, who has the charisma and animated visual appeal of a mud fence.
I'm really on the fence about this. I like Reeves but I felt he wasn't really used to his full potential during the film. He honestly just came off more of a poster boy than a lead role. You could tell one of the main characters was more involved than they claimed to be but you don't figure out until the end as to how involved. So it is a little predictable but not so much where you still can't enjoy watching it.
The supporting cast really stepped up and made this movie a lot better than it would have been without them. I am disappointed in Zellweger though. I felt she lacked that certain ability (acting) and didn't sell her performance at all. She should just go away quietly and never return.
Overall, Not a bad movie. It's a decent enough courtroom drama to want to sit through and the run time is reasonable enough where you wouldn't get tired of sitting through it. Potential was there was a bit more improvement though - More Reeves mainly, Maybe being more subtle with the twists and predictability. Worth a Redbox rental though if you are a fan of Reeves, Other than that I wouldn't really recommend it as it's not really noteworthy.
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...Or the whole lie!
It's a courtroom drama, about a murder mystery of a wealthy lawyer. It opened with a defense attorney voicing his 17 year old boy client suspected of murder of his own father. The boy had not spoken ever since the incident, so his lawyer does not know how to build the case and defend him. Seems no one know what happened except the boy, so proving he's an innocent becomes their tough nut to crack. How the trial ends and revealing truth comes in the later part.
Boring. That's right, but not fully. The main reason was it is slow like a soulless. There's no one's performance to highlight. Only Gugu looked so good in her small part when everybody else was so dull. The Keanu Reeve's background narration was sometimes annoying. Totally unbelievable that Renee Zellweger was unrecognisable 6 years after returning to the cinema. I had to check online to confirm that she was it.
The idea for the story to develop was not that bad, but had some issues. The screenplay was flawed, though the initial part looked okay. Probably in the midway, you will figure it out all like I did, so the remaining is to know how it all happened. The detail at the end was too much. After letting us know the truth, they did not had to detail that part in the pictures which in my perspective ruined this film. That makes it a not so smart.
And also about the parenting, particularly about the mother, the writers missed the point like any mother would defend her child for any cost. It's their nature, I mean most of them, so not this mother to blame for that, but the writers who only thought of the twist and to keep the suspense for as long as it goes. So this is an average film for intelligent people and even for the average people. Now you know who might love this flick than anybody else. Yet not bad for watching it once.
5/10
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The Whole Truth is a judicial drama, but only on a general plot. The film itself is a typical B-movie in which there is 1 top actor. The plot here is linear and predictable. The denouement is served as if the viewer is watching a film with his eyes closed. It's so banal here. And even Keanu Reeves can not paint all this gray and secondary narrative in any way.
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Production Company
PalmStar Media,
Atlas Entertainment,
Likely Story,
Merced Media Partners,
Whole Truth Productions
Release Date Oct 21, 2016
Duration 1 h 33 m
Rating R
Tagline Do you swear to tell the truth, The Whole Truth, and nothing but the truth? So help you God.
Awards
Women Film Critics Circle Awards
• 1 Nomination
