True Story

Rated R / 1 hr 40 min / Drama - Mystery - Thriller

What is it about?

This is based on a true story as if that wasn't obvious. James Franco plays Christian Longo who is accused of murdering his wife and three kids. He was caught in Mexico pretending to be New York Times reporter Michael Finkel. Jonah Hill plays Michael Finkel who loves being a New York Times reporter. He gets caught fudging some of the facts on an article and gets fired. Michael goes home to his wife and begins looking for a job. He gets a call from a reporter asking him what he thought of Christian Longo. He has no idea what is going on, so he googles himself. He decides to write this man that was pretending to be him. The two begin corresponding and Finkel thinks the story would make a good book.

You will like it if...

You like murder mysteries based on a true story. The story itself is interesting and compelling, but the film spends most of it's 100 minutes on the relationship between the two main characters. Their relationship gives a bit of insight into the mind of a killer, but it's not as interesting as the story behind the movie. The story of what actually happened. True Story has too many dry spells that cause the film to grind to a halt. James Franco and Jonah Hill have good chemistry on the screen, and both do a decent job with their respective roles. There are a few scenes where each of them overdo it, but it's not bad enough to be campy. True Story is an average to slightly above average film that could have been much more interesting. There are moments that make it worth watching, but not worth more money than you would spend to rent it at Redbox.