'Truth': EW review

In September 2004, as George W. Bush was running for reelection, Dan Rather anchored a piece on 60 Minutes about the alleged shortcuts and deceits the president used to dodge serving in Vietnam. It was an explosive report…and a flawed one, leading to the dismissal of both Rather and the segment’s producer, Mary Mapes. Writer-director James Vanderbilt’s newsroom drama attempts to right the scandal and set the record straight. But despite a pair of solid performances from Cate Blanchett (as the hard-charging Mapes) and Robert Redford (as a paternal Rather), the movie is too deep in the tank for its subjects, especially Mapes, whose book the film is based on. They come across more like righteous fourth-estate saints than journalists who might have been a bit too hungry for a gotcha scoop. For a movie about the importance of objectivity, Truth feels like a biased and sanctimonious op-ed column. C