Loosely based on recent true events and featuring breakout performances from Kate Beckinsale and Vera Farmiga, this crackling thriller inspires as it follows one woman's fight for her principles against the might of Washington power.
Beckinsale plays Rachel Armstrong, a journalist sitting on the story of a lifetime. She has uncovered the identity of a covert CIA agent, Erica Van Doren (Farmiga), who may have angered a compromised White House. Erica's little girl attends the same school as Rachel's son; the women know each other only from the soccer field. Pushed by her editor (Angela Bassett) to break the story, Rachel writes an article that shakes the government and the CIA to its core. And as far as Erica is concerned, Rachel has endangered her very life.
So when Rachel stands by her story and refuses to reveal her source, the stranglehold of Washington authority seizes hold of her. The government's prosecutor (Matt Dillon) attacks her credibility and resolve. Her lawyer, played by Alan Alda with a delicious insider sense of how power works, tries and fails to clear her. Judged in contempt of court, she is thrown into jail with common criminals.
It is here that Nothing But the Truth finds its perfect balance between the political and the personal. Rachel is caught up in huge and threatening geopolitical forces, but they play out in the day-to-day details of her domestic life. Imprisoned indefinitely, she begins to lose touch with her husband, played with deft complexity by David Schwimmer. And as her refusal to reveal her source escalates a conflict between the White House and CIA agent Erica, these two women find themselves on the front line of a much bigger war.
Rod Lurie's brisk, stylish direction keeps the story charging forward, but this is a rare thriller that devotes real time to character. It makes for an intense and engaging film that compels us to question how far we would go to stand up for what we believe in.