Best Keanu: “They don’t teach this in law school. Yes, all witnesses lie.”

The Whole Truth is the kind of courtroom drama you’re surprised can be stretched to 90 minutes. It feels no more innovative than a standard John Grisham novel or an old episode of Matlock. But it’s nice to see Renee Zellweger — who you know has something to hide (dramatic music) — and it’s fun to watch Keanu and think, “wow, I really believe him as a lawyer.”

He rides a motorcycle too, which looks good on him. My mind strayed and wondered if that was his bike, or a loaner for the day.

This movie got bumped up from three stars to four in my informal rating system — basically, if a movie holds a story, isn’t overtly misogynistic or queer-phobic, and leaves me thinking, “yeah that was all right,” it gets a three — because of a nice series of twists at the end.

One twist you thought you saw coming very early, but the movie gives enough miscues to keep you guessing. Then it adds on a bonus in the final moments that will leave you searching back in your mind to see if the whole truth was hinted at before.

It’s an interesting psychological play, if you want to overthink it — the assumptions you make as a viewer. Yes, X character did or said this but we assumed it was because of Y — but actually something very different was going on. That said, maybe you shouldn’t have to overthink movies to make them interesting or worth your while.

There’s a bit of lack of focus, story-wise, when it comes to the Gugu Mbatha-Raw character. I enjoyed watching her, but didn’t understand the relevance of her weird backstory. It seems at first they introduce her to play out a courtroom drama trope — the young lawyer being mentored who hits a homerun and wins the case — but what she’s actually doing there ends up being confusing.

So confusing — her backstory, combined with what she perceives in the roster of witnesses, many of whom are lying — that I won’t even bother trying to unpack it.

This movie made me think of a few things. Law school, specifically that time in first year when I volunteered to be a fake witness for some upper years’ mock trial. We had to improvise, and I wasn’t told anything except what my character believed they experienced. When I was “cross-examined,” I was fully in my character and legitimately pissed off that my account was being questioned. I talked back. I got angry. I remember some of the observers laughing, and when we finished, the “lawyer” came up to me and said, “you were a good witness. Oh my god!”

That is a good memory. I’m laughing thinking about it.

And that’s nice. It’s nice to have a good memory come back. When you go through the Keanu Reeves filmography, you span a lot of eras and a lot of different kinds of stories. I didn’t anticipate how that might affect my mood and the sequence of my thoughts. I suppose I should have — I know myself well enough, so I should have foreseen that some films would make me want to watch them over and over again because of their goofy, easy comfort, while others would make me want to crawl into bed and wrap the covers tightly enough around my shoulders to push out the emotional ache from some ancient wound.

It’s nice to remember law school. I loved law school. I also enjoyed that screenwriting class I took once, which The Whole Truth also made me think about. The pacing, the character development, the arc, the conflict. It’s textbook, a lot of it. And Keanu, who knew — he’s totally believable as a lawyer (with something to hide).

March 2022