The Whole Truth (2016)
A defense attorney works to get his teenage client acquitted of murdering his wealthy father.
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People are voting emotionally.
Did you people see the same film I saw?
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Good courtroom drama. Well written script. It seemed obvious but was not.
The Whole Truth: Directed by Courtney Hunt and written by Nicolas Kazan using a pseudonym Rafael Jackson.Keanu Reeves as a defense lawyer defending a teenager who killed his father and confessed to the crime. He also refuses to talk to his attorney. This makes his job almost impossible. This movie is intentionally deceiving in a lot of ways. The mystery of what actually happened is the entire crux of the movie and it was flimsy to say the least. You know right from the very beginning that the boy didn't kill his dad. You get the sense that the kid is clearly protecting his mom. His mom is supposed to have been in this horrific abusive long relationship with Jim Belushi's character. It doesn't feel like it though. Renee Zellweger, an Oscar winner for Cold Mountain is just lifeless in this movie. Keanu Reeves has more personality than she does. We all know how limited he is. He's fine in this movie. He also is holding onto a secret. This movie really hinges on this mystery. It tries to confuse you with different points of view as for how things happened. It doesn't necessarily walk into Rashomon territory but it runs close. It just does not work and the twist comes out of nowhere and doesn't begin to redeem this very lifeless movie. I give this movie a D.
As an erstwhile screenwriter and script analyst, I thought I had this plot figured out. Boy, was I wrong. While not particularly well-acted, the story line is brilliant. This film is an insight into the ruthless way criminal defense lawyers think. "All witnesses lie" -- and so do their lawyers. This movie will keep you guessing until the end.
No one would believe that the rapping will not be tested by a medical examiner. Mike accused his passed-away father that he was rapping him since he was 12 (and now he is almost 18 yrs old), during this period of time he did not even try to tell his mother, the closest person to Mike I suppose. I expected one question from defense to Mike "Did you ever tell your mother about your father's abuse"? The story line is empty, so the question was missing. Since the first pleading, I felt something was going very wrong. Questions are very few, answers were not clear. The closing pleadings were too funny to believe (couple of minutes for a murder case!!). The husband told the lawyer than some one close to me has a relation with my wife, but no one knows how he figured out this fact. The funniest thing is that, after killing the husband, the lawyer asked the wife to put her finger prints on the knife- this means the wife is willing to go to jail to cover her relation with the lawyer. Isn't silly enough? How come a first-class lawyer who planned for a complete and clean murder drops his hand watch in the scene. He did not forget to wear gloves, of course, but on the other hand he tried to cover his head in an empty house where Mike should not have been there at all. I can't believe this. a 4-star rating is generous for such movies. My advice for all not to lose their valuable time to watch this!