The Whole Truth (2016)

Directed by Courtney Hunt. Starring Keanu Reeves, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Renée Zellweger, Gabriel Basso, Jim Klock, Jim Belushi, Nicole Barré, Sean Bridgers, Lyndsay Kimball, Ritchie Montgomery. [R]

Young man Basso is on trial for murder after stabbing beastly papa Belushi (maybe he watched a few minutes of “According to Jim”?)…or so it seems. Reeves’ wooden defense lawyer can’t come up with much of a defense when his client refuses to speak, which means that there are secrets to be uncovered; does Basso’s mother (Zellweger, hardly recognizable anymore) know more than she’s letting on, and will Reeves’ greenhorn co-counsel Mbatha-Raw be willing to compromise her morals in pursuing a not guilty verdict no matter what? Discouraging second feature for director Hunt (Frozen River) parses out its information through flashback teases that can’t be trusted, which leads to an idiotic reveal at the last minute that confirms all the cheap manipulation that preceded it. The visual palette is flat and aloof, like a tonally-drained episode of “Law & Order” (which would make it…well, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”). At least Reeves spares us the butchery of a Southern accent when playing a lawyer this time.

40/100