46
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlThis engaging courtroom drama aces the trick of grounding its ludicrousness in a convincing facsimile of reality.
- 62TheWrapMichael NordineTheWrapMichael NordineThe Whole Truth stands out within its evergreen genre for the largely unsensational manner in which it’s presented. Hunt follows actual courtroom procedures more closely than most similar movies...which makes the eventual revelations feel earned.
- 58The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe Whole Truth is a moderately clever, reasonably entertaining courtroom drama, which is only a problem given the talent involved with bringing something this middle-of-the-road to the screen.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenEveryone is clearly hiding something. But more pressing than the mystery of Mike’s silence and his parents’ toxic relationship is the sense of a missed opportunity that permeates the movie, sapping its final twist of the solar-plexus wallop it should have delivered.
- 50Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaSlant MagazineKenji FujishimaThe filmmakers are so disengaged from the psyches of its characters that The Whole Truth ultimately plays as little more than the cinematic equivalent of a trashy airport novel that will grip you in the moment before it dissolves from memory immediately afterward.
- 50Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleHunt, whose debut feature was “Frozen River,” has a steadfastly classicist approach to tried-and-true genre storytelling that’s admirable, but instead of building tension, The Whole Truth lets it bleed out.
- 50The Seattle TimesTom KeoghThe Seattle TimesTom KeoghThe film’s bleached colors and Reeves’ trademark woodenness add to its emotional remoteness, though Basso, Zellweger and Belushi create a convincing family in crisis. Zellweger, especially, delivers a fascinating, complex performance as a damaged survivor.
- 40VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeLooking back to “Frozen River,” Hunt’s long-awaited second feature shares the weaknesses of her debut — namely, a single-minded focus on a somewhat trashy predicament, with little to no room for subplots or other enriching details — while lacking in the earlier film’s strengths.
- 40The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThe New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThe Whole Truth plays like an especially claustrophobic courtroom procedural, drably photographed and generically framed.
- 0ObserverRex ReedObserverRex ReedA guaranteed cure for insomnia, an abomination called The Whole Truth is a courtroom movie that looks like a colorized version of an old Perry Mason TV show, starring Renée Zellweger’s new face and Keanu Reeves, who has the charisma and animated visual appeal of a mud fence.