-By Chris Barsanti

For movie details, please click here.

Writer-director Rod Lurie opens Nothing But the Truth, his best film in years, with a swift series of events that smartly mirror how political media firestorms erupt inside the Beltway. There’s an assassination attempt on the President and we then find out that afterward the nation invaded Venezuela on evidence that they were behind the attempt. Enter crackerjack D.C. reporter Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale), undergoing the last round of editorial vetting on what she calls her “holy shit piece.” In it, Armstrong identifies Erica Van Doren (Vera Farmiga) as a (formerly) undercover CIA agent whose ignored intelligence said the evidence forcing the invasion was a lie. Armstrong refuses to identify her source to federal prosecutor Dubois (Matt Dillon) and so gets hurled into prison for contempt.

One of the strongest points in Nothing But the Truth’s favor is that even those who never followed the case that inspired the film will find themselves sucked into the story anyway, and those who do know the case won’t find too many exaggerations to distract them. Something working in Lurie’s favor is that the actual story—wherein New York Times reporter Judith Miller went to prison for refusing to say who disclosed CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity to her, as part of a suspected witch hunt against those who cast doubts on intelligence confirming Iraq’s possession of WMD—was so over-the-top that even his version (which only ups the ante by adding a murder to the scenario) doesn’t seem farfetched.

Previously known for potboilers whose tone was just shy of hysterical (The Contender in particular), Lurie here takes a welcome step back from hyperbole. He’s produced a crisply shot drama that takes a tangled knot of issues and plays them out with a reasonable amount of realism. The screenplay clips along at the pace of a media scandal, with Armstrong in prison almost before she’s even aware of what’s happening. Once she’s inside, the film turns claustrophobic, shying away from the standard avenues-of-power establishing shots that afflict most dramas of this kind, and holding tight on Armstrong as her career and family fall to pieces. Fortunately, while Lurie has toned down his trademark bombast, he’s continued his fascination with strong female characters; more directors would be well-served to follow his example.

Although Lurie tosses out the occasional preachy line (Armstrong’s lawyer explains her lack of support by noting how recently “the press stopped being the white knight and became the dragon”) but mostly plays it down the middle. Nothing But the Truth dramatically illustrates the perfectly logical opposing viewpoints with a minimum of fuss and some snappy dialogue from a cadre of talented performers (Dillon, Farmiga, and Alan Alda, as Armstrong’s lawyer, are particular standouts). That being said, there are times when Lurie’s tightness of focus can give the film a certain movie-of-the-week aura. While the facelessness of the film’s villains certainly lends it a more realistic feel, the end result may be too sober-minded for most audiences.