As a huge fan of Franco and Hill, I was really excited when I heard that the two of them would be starring in a drama together; however, when the film finally came out it was met with below average reviews.  Because of that, I held back and decided to wait on it, but the other night I finally caved and decided to see it for myself.  I was not disappointed.  True Story was an interesting psychological crime drama that kept me interested the entire duration of the film.  I will also note that True Story is indeed a ‘true story’.

First of all, the film is about a journalist, Michael Finkel, who is let go from the New York Times due to writing an article that contained a lot of false information.  Struggling to find work, he soon learns that a man accused of killing his entire family has been using his identity.  Mike is curious to learn why this alleged serial killer has been using his identity and so he decides to meet the prisoner, Christian Longo, and discuss matters.  Christian’s story is rather interesting and Mike can see a bestselling book in his future with Christian’s story so he decides to meet with Christian every so often discussing his life and the murder of his family.  The film focuses heavily on the conversations that Mike and Christian had during Mike’s visits to see Christian in prison.

I really enjoyed this movie because a) the film, although starring Felicity Jones, is really just the conversations between Mike Finkel and Christian Longo.  Some people may find that boring, and it leads me to think that that is why the movie got iffy reviews from both critics and users; however, I found the dialogue to be very interesting and I always wanted to know what was going to happen next between the two main characters.  You were never quite sure if Christian was being 100% truthful with Mike and that is what made the film interesting.  Movies that only rely on either one actor or two grab my interest because just watching two people perform for two hours is a great feat for actors.  The mood felt just right and the beautiful score by Marco Beltrami certainly added a lot of eeriness to the film.  Both Franco and Hill gave excellent performances that made me believe in both of their characters.

Honestly, maybe I’m missing something here, but I thought that True Story was a good movie.  I really don’t know what critics and users didn’t like about it, but I think it is worth seeing.  Give True Story a shot; I think you may be pleasantly surprised, as I was.

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