It's OK. I thought it was a watchable time waster, fairly forgettable but enjoyable enough in the moment and the final twist surprised me a bit. Renee Zellweger and Gugu Mbatha Raw give solid performances but Keanu Reeves is fairly wooden. C+

In The Whole Truth, a veteran Louisiana lawyer (Keanu Reeves) defends an uncommunicative teenager (Gabriel Basso) charged with murdering his father (James Belushi), a wealthy, but coarse man widely known to intimidate and taunt both his wife (Renée Zellweger) and son. For a while, Frozen River director Courtney Hunt's intimate legal drama intrigues with its detached, observant contemplation of courtroom procedure and pointed intertwining of testimony—biased, remembered imperfectly, shifted to avoid humiliation—with outwardly objective depictions of the actual events. Zellweger and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (as a less jaded junior attorney assisting with the defense) deliver very strong performances, the former registering as enigmatic and traumatized while the latter contributes a required degree of sensitivity and skepticism. Even Reeves, an iconic and durable movie star never overly burdened with natural acting ability, acquits himself admirably and subtly, portraying a more convincing and nuanced Southern lawyer than he did in The Devil's Advocate two decades ago. Unfortunately, the film severely self-sabotages with a series of convoluted and downright garish third-act twists; one after another, they entirely undermine our investment in these characters in the pursuit of disposable jolts, with the story's quote-unquote whole truth ultimately being full of inconsistencies and improbabilities.

C+

I expected much more from this cast and the twist was pretty predictable for me. Its something when you have such talented cast of actors and you cannot tell a good emotional story. I loved Zellweger and Gugu Mbatha-Raw here but as others mentioned Reeves is sleep walking here. The court case was also never involving or interesting other than the reveal that the father was abusing the child (though it could have very well been made up).

C