TRUE STORY (2015) – My rating: 8/10

True Story is actually a true story.  A very suspenseful movie that reminds me a little of “Primal Fear“ and a little of “Jagged Edge“.  These are 2 very different stories but similar in technicality and emotions.  Also, True Story is a real story about Michael Finkel (Jonah Hill), a Journalist for the NY Times, who partially fabricated a story to gain preferential support for African children receiving charity.  When discovered, Mike was disgraced and fired from the Times.  He then embarked on the case of Christian Longo (James Franco) who used Mike’s name (as in identity thief) for some unknown reason.  This lead to a phone call to Mike from a reporter for The Oregonian, which peaked Mike’s curiosity.  Christian is accused of killing his wife and 3 children, motive unknown.  Christian and Mike began to meet and decided to write a book, to be published after Christian’s trial was over.  A game of cat and mouse perused throughout their relationship.  Christian was a bit of an enigma as he pleaded not guilty to 2 of the murders and guilty to the other 2, after telling Mike he was not guilty.  This caused Mike to doubt Christian’s sanity and honor.    As of this review, Christian is still alive on death row and has published several of his writings on the murders in the NY Times.  Finkel has never again written for the Times, to date.  The movie was very well acted and very well directed (Rupert Goold).  True Story didn’t make big headlines but I think it’s worth seeing.

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