'True Story' a tale of Faustian temptation and rude redemption

"True Story" tells a fabricated version of a true story about a New York Times reporter fired for writing a fabricated version of a true story.

Weird, isn't it?

We can accept that movies fudge facts to better tell a real-life story in the service of revealing a higher truth.

But we can't accept, nor should we, journalists who fudge facts to better tell a real-life story even in the service of revealing a same higher truth.

Award-winning, globe-trotting journalist Mike Finkel, played by Jonah Hill, joins a growing club of disgraced reporters (alongside Stephen Glass, Janet Cooke and Jayson Blair) when he refuses to let the facts get in the way of a good story about African child slavery.

Branded as a toxic asset, the once-respected Finkel can't find work and retreats to his home with his ultra-supportive girlfriend Jill (Felicity Jones in a woefully underwritten role). Then, something out of a Charlie Kaufman screenplay occurs.

Finkel receives a phone call from a reporter wanting to know why Christian Longo, an arrested fugitive wanted in the murders of his wife and children, took on the identity of New York Times reporter Mike Finkel while hiding out in Mexico.

Astonished, frightened and fascinated, Finkel arranges to meet his deceiving doppelgänger in an Oregon prison. James Franco plays him.

Franco and Hill last appeared together in "This is the End," a hilariously vulgar Book of Revelations parody.

Here, you might think our expectations for these comic cut-ups would undermine the serious nature of this drama, based on Finkel's book.

Not so.

These two check their caustic comic chemistry and create a confrontation crackling with caution and confusion.

Instead of asking Longo if he killed his family or why Longo impersonated him - which Finkel gets around to - the reporter seems more interested to ask this: "Maybe, you could tell me what it's like to be me!"

What a narcissist. And what a great, compelling, quasi-sympathetic character.

With large horn-rimmed glasses framing his wide-open eyes, Hill presents Finkel as a walking mass of ego and self-preservation. (Physically, he could play a young Roger Ebert, should anyone make a movie about the Chicago critic.)

Finkel figures Longo could be a second chance, if he can only get the accused killer to write a book with him. He'll be back at the NYT in no time. Or so Finkel imagines.

Franco plays Longo as one scary character, not because he projects evil, but because he gives us nothing. No telling reactions. No displays of remorse, sympathy, empathy or sadness. No clues to his guilt or innocence.

Nothing but a blank slate upon which Finkel, in his re-energized quest for redemption, can write his own assumptions and hopes, including a long shot that the accused man might be innocent and covering up key information in the case.

Watching these two actors (and off-screen best buds) feed off each other becomes the big draw in British theater director Rupert Goold's interesting but ultimately underwhelming movie debut.

"True Story" comes stuffed with superfluous flashbacks of Longo's once-happy family, scenes that would have been acceptable as old home movies or videos. Here, cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi appears to have watched Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life" right before shooting these excessively artsy reminders of the past.

Robert John Burke's police investigator Greg Ganley constantly stares into the distance or through windshields while attempting to persuade Finkel to help the prosecution.

This stagy, pretentious delivery works in live theater, but feels phony in the more literal medium of movies, especially when real cops tend to look suspects straight in the eyes, scanning for any telltale signs of deceit.

Being a stage director, Goold clearly falls back on what he knows, which isn't all bad.

"True Story" shows the Faustian bargain that reporters must make when using accused killers for their own career goals.

Then, there's the truth, a constantly moving target that Finkel can't quite hit, and one that Longo skillfully dodges.

“True Story”

★ ★ ★

Starring: Jonah Hill, James Franco, Felicity Jones, Robert John Burke

Directed by: Rupert Goold

Other: A 20th Century Fox release. Rated R for language and disturbing images. 100 minutes