Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

True Story Blu-ray Movie Review

Truth is stranger than fictionalization.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 7, 2015

There are two rather odd statistical anomalies that at least some of us raising kids in the Pacific Northwest have become aware of, one detailing a threat from within (so to speak), and the other referencing a external cause for alarm. For reasons which have never been scientifically determined, the Pacific Northwest has long had an outsized occurrence of spinal meningitis, to the point that there are virtually annual news stories of yet another set of parents who tragically thought their kids were just encountering a simple viral infection of some low order, only to have the child’s unbelievable death quickly follow. There are even occasional billboards that have been erected along the I-5 corridor attempting to educate parents to better recognize the symptoms of this deadly disease. Child mortality of another sort entirely is part of the second odd statistical spike, this one involving parents killing their kids, with many choosing the prevalence of bridges in this region as the location for their nefarious deeds. Even worse considering the generally peace inducing respite that being oceanside tends to grant most folks is the fact that an oddly high incidence of these horrible killings takes place at coastal settings. Just in the past couple of years there have been high profile cases dotting the Portland region’s news with various parents tossing their kids from bridges and/or shooting them at various coastal sites. It’s a truly disturbing statistic, one that found one of its most gruesome exemplars in Christian Longo, a man whose horrific crimes started to make first local and then national news right before Christmas in 2001.

Though it barely registered as a footnote to the horrific detailing of Longo’s crimes at the time, after Longo killed his wife and three young children, he absconded to Mexico where for reasons which are not entirely clear (despite some passing lip service given to one theory in True Story), Longo appropriated the identity of then up and coming New York Times reporter Michael Finkel. Evidently unbeknownst to Longo, Finkel had encountered a recent rough patch in his career when he was actually let go from the Times after having aggregated several different people into one supposed “real life” character for a cover story on child slavery in Africa. Unable to find traditional journalistic work in the wake of an embarrassing Times retraction, Finkel felt there was almost an act of Divine intervention at hand when he was alerted to the fact that Longo had been using his identity, something that came to light shortly after Longo was discovered and arrested just a few weeks after he had hightailed it out of Oregon for supposedly sunnier climes.

True Story perhaps unavoidably but also just as probably mistakenly attempts to link these disparate characters together, with shared if quantitatively disparate narcissism of both Longo (James Franco) and Finkel (Jonah Hill) playing into the narrative. This linking tends to play out in awkwardly over intellectualized banter between the two, after Finkel decides he needs to write a book about Longo, something he considers will be cathartic both personally and professionally. There’s therefore too on the nose ponderings like each asking the other “why did you do it” or even “did you do it?”, when first there’s no debate as to the second query, and perhaps no adequate answer for the first.

While perhaps based on the actual historical record, True Story tends to undercut its own built in “ripped from the headlines” appeal by having Finkel believe, at least temporarily, that Longo might actually be innocent of the murders and is involved in some other situation that he’s trying to cover up. This angle also ends up involving Finkel’s girlfriend Jill Barker (Felicity Jones), a character who seems to have been shoehorned into the proceedings simply to make sure there’s a female in the mix. This particular aspect perhaps only unwisely raises potent questions about Finkel’s own journalistic acuity, while at the same time providing the plot with a really needlessly overheated sidebar.

This all tends to play into what is obviously supposed to be a Rashômon-esque investigation into the perception of truth and perspective, but once again True Story tends to refract this thesis in unhelpful ways, especially since the “facts” of Longo’s case are never seriously in doubt. What’s left is a series of sometimes rather piquant interchanges between two wounded souls, as they both attempt to come to terms with their identities. Both actors are commendably understated throughout the proceedings, though Franco doesn’t seem to quite have the smarmy narcissism that oozes from the real life Longo.

There was just the faintest whiff of self serving in Finkel’s attempt to rehabilitate his reputation through his dealings with Longo (something that on its face seems almost unbelievably ironic). Had some of that ambivalence made it into True Story, the film’s emotional impact might have been greater. Oddly, though, the film seems to want to take a measured, even somewhat distant, approach toward both of its focal characters. That may seem to deprive the film of a bit of nuance when it comes to Finkel, but in the case of Longo, attempting to portray such a heinous sociopath as anything other than a deeply disturbed killer may strike some as almost intentionally off putting.

True Story Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

True Story is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. As co-writer and director Rupert Goold discusses in his commentary, aside from just a couple of digital shots, True Story was shot on film and the transfer here exhibits a nice if often fairly low key organic look, one which supports the often drab palette of the film. Settings under harsh fluorescent lighting in the prison interview sequences tend to slightly mask fine detail in midrange shots, though close-ups still offer good looks at elements like Longo's scraggly beard and mustache. Some shots seems intentionally soft looking, including some of the exterior shots as Finkel investigates the location of the crime (as an Oregonian I must say that the film's use of New York beachsides as a fill in for my state's are woefully misguided from a topographical perspective).

True Story Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

True Story's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix never really fully stretches its sonic wings, part of which can be attributed to the fact that a lot of the film plays as a so-called "two hander," with simple dialogue scenes between Longo and Finkel offering little in the way of "wow" factor. Occasional elements like some oceanside scenes manage to deliver discrete channelization for ambient environmental effects, but this is overall a fairly restrained presentation, one which does offer Marco Beltrami's score a full soundstage on which to reside. Fidelity remains excellent throughout, with dialogue well prioritized and delivered without any problems whatsoever.

True Story Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 16:44) feature optional commentary by Rupert Goold.


• Promotional Featurettes:

  Mike Finkel (1080p; 3:33)

  Who is Christian Longo? (1080p; 3:56)

  The Truth Behind 'True Story' (1080p; 4:03)

  The Making of 'True Story' (1080p; 5:26)

• Audio Commentary by Rupert Goold finds the first time feature film director and co-writer enthusing about his cast and various aspects of the shoot.


• Gallery (1080p; 2:05) offers both an Auto Advance and a Manual Advance option. The timing is for the Auto Advance option.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:25)

True Story Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The whole fall and winter of 2001 was a litany of bad news for many Americans, starting of course with the horrors of September 11, but then, for those of us in Portland anyway, made somehow more horrifying by the pre-Christmas discovery of a murdered family just dumped in the water off of Oregon's scenic coast. The Longo story dominated the local news here for a long time, and while the Finkel angle never received any undue attention, the entire saga of this preppy looking murderer was front page and lead story fare for months. True Story plays a little fast and loose with some facts, making its title a bit questionable, but one of the film's more daring gambits is trying to "humanize" Longo, at least in terms of his relationship with Finkel. The film never successfully coalesces its thesis that these two are somehow peas in a pod, but True Story still offers excellent opportunities for both Hill and Franco in roles far removed from some of their more whimsical comedic personae. Technical merits are generally strong and with caveats noted, True Story comes Recommended.