As a screenwriter, James Vanderbilt won acclaim for his work on 2007’s “Zodiac.” Vanderbilt also wrote “Darkness Falls,” “White House Down,” and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” His track record leans toward moviegoing misery, and now he makes his directorial debut with “Truth,” trying to shake off his reputation as a genre man by dramatizing the brouhaha surrounding the Killian Documents Controversy and the firing of Dan Rather from the “CBS Evening News.” Ideas on journalism ethics, the inherently manipulative nature of reporting, and the uncomfortable marriage between greed and daily news are pushed aside so Vanderbilt can make a cloying, dreadfully acted melodrama, ignoring the juicy details of the event to play as broadly as possible with little to no actual thematic goals. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com