The Whole Truth
Lionsgate Premiere | Release Date: October 21, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlOct 19, 2016
This engaging courtroom drama aces the trick of grounding its ludicrousness in a convincing facsimile of reality. Read full review
62
TheWrapMichael NordineOct 17, 2016
The 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. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDan GundermanOct 21, 2016
While it does fall victim to a number of genre tropes, it is fronted by a believable Keanu Reeves and a pleasantly deceitful Renee Zellweger. Plus, an agreeable performance from the defendant character, played by Gabriel Basso, keeps the story pulsating. Read full review
58
The Film StageConor O'DonnellOct 24, 2016
There’s nothing monumental at play in The Whole Truth, but it’s not entirely without merit, satisfying on the same level one would digest a grocery store paperback. Read full review
58
IndieWireSteve GreeneOct 22, 2016
A film that often avoids any middle ground, making for a cut-and-dried courtroom tale that desperately wants to be anything but. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayOct 19, 2016
The 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. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredRobert Yaniz Jr.Oct 22, 2016
Keanu Reeves effectively anchors The Whole Truth, but a capable cast can only do so much to keep the lingering mystery afloat before logic weighs it down. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoOct 21, 2016
Ultimately, there’s nothing offensively bad here—other than a waste of talent who should be doing better work—but it’s so forgettable that you’ll have trouble remembering if you saw it or not when you scroll past it on cable in a few months. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesTom KeoghOct 20, 2016
The 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. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleOct 20, 2016
Hunt, 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. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenOct 17, 2016
Everyone 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. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaOct 17, 2016
The 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. Read full review
40
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisOct 20, 2016
The Whole Truth plays like an especially claustrophobic courtroom procedural, drably photographed and generically framed. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 17, 2016
Looking 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. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedOct 19, 2016
A 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. Read full review
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