In Nothing But The Truth, director-writer Rod Lurie “has created female protagonists strong and self-aware enough to question sexism and hypocrisy. He’s created two of the most fascinating female movie characters to hit screens in a long while,” says Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday in a 4.28 review. “And they’ve been brought to life by two gifted actresses — Kate Beckinsale and Vera Farmiga — each working at the top of her game.

“Every once in a while, for reasons as random as a Hollywood executive’s taste or an economic meltdown, a perfectly decent movie slips through the cracks, never receives a theatrical release and is relegated to the purgatory called straight-to-DVD.

“Some worthwhile cinematic gems have experienced such a fate (see Idiocracy and SherryBaby), and today we can add another one to the list. Nothing but the Truth, a taut political thriller, takes some cues from recent events, adds a dash of over-the-top melodrama and comes up with a crafty little pretzel of a movie, given added bite thanks to careermaking performances from Beckinsale and Farmiga.

“Lurie has gotten better and better over the years, and with Nothing but the Truth he’s made the best film of his career, winching the drama steadily tighter as the notion of power and its abuse becomes more murky. He stages a shocking mid-point murder with jolting, ruthless finesse. But by far the most effective sequences of the film are those that feature Beckinsale and Farmiga going nose-to-nose as women trying (and failing) to find common ground.”