True Story

Amidst the close ups of a pale, clammy, tired James Franco, comes an ever so slow paced thriller about a man who allegedly kills his entire family.  When you put two narcissistic assholes in a room together to fill each other full of lies, you get greatness!  Well not necessarily in this film.  First we have Jonah Hill, Americas Sweetheart and a champion at extreme weight change.  He plays a disgraced writer who is canned for lying on a public image story.  His robotic and distant acting fell short in this role as he takes on the job of writing Franco's characters story.  Then we have Franco, he is so uncomfortable to watch at points that it makes you feel weird.  I guess that means he is doing the acting thing well.  He plays the accused killer of his wife and three children.  This is all based on true events, but then again unfortunately its not all that uncommon to hear about.  The majority of the story is set to have Franco tell Hill the story of what happened with exclusivity.  The only problem is they are both compulsive liars and the cat and mouse suspense is thrown way out of proportion.  Then throw in the weird, estranged relationship with Hill and his wife that brings the comfort level down another notch.  I guess I would say I was intrigued the entire film but felt let down with the events.  I wanted so much more and would have probably cast someone other than Hill.  I feel like this was good, but could have been great!  Worth a watch just get ready to make all of your own conclusions. I will say one thing, the original movie poster is one of the coolest I have ever seen.

FYI:  The character Hill plays still actually visits Franco's character once a month.

***1/2