How do you know when a politician is lying? you just do. Oh, and when they open their mouths too. The fact is, politicians deserve all the grief they get considering the way they behave. Case in point, anything that Donald trump says; despite his incessant heinous diatribe and mudslinging though, a vast number of the American public consider him President material, which may be more troubling than the man himself.

Back in 2004, George W. Bush, who was seeking re-election, was doing some mudslinging of his own, when his opponent's war record (John Kerry) came under severe scrutiny. But as they say, it's a dangerous game to throw stones when you're living in a glass white house.

An election year is a busy time for any news producer, but even more so if you're working on the longest running, prime time news show in the US, 60 Minutes. Producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) was assigned none other than news anchor legend Dan Rather (Robert Redford) to work with.

After getting wind of a juicy story regarding the accuracy of the army record of then President George W. Bush, Mapes put together a team to chase it up. They had received leaked documents that suggested that Bush had preferential treatment during his time as a Texas Air National Guard, that not only allowed him to avoid fighting for his country in Vietnam, but to avoid any form of training altogether for over a year.

To her and her team's credit, they managed to meet the tight deadline to get the story to air. With the story now out in the public domain, they soon found that their integrity came under fire as the authenticity of their source documents were widely disputed. So much so that the network CBS backtracked and distanced themselves as far as possible from the story to the point where Mapes herself was hung out to dry with her professionalism as a journalist brought into question.

What you get with Truth is essentially two films for the price of one. The first half is your standard, slow-burning political drama, whereas the second half mutates into a pseudo court room drama. Unfortunately for the film, neither half completely works.

Its problems ultimately lay at the feet of its writer and debut director James Vanderbilt. Up until this point in his career he has been responsible for writing the likes of The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel, as well as the dire action flick White House Down. What Vanderbilt has proved with this effort is that he may be ambitious, but when it comes to flicks with a political edge, he's no William Goldman or Aaron Sorkin. And perhaps he has taught himself a lesson here, as his next project is to helm Independence Day 3, which is probably more his league.

Nearly everything about the film is decidedly average, including the dialogue and overall look of the film. The only thing that slightly elevates it are some damn fine performances from Dennis Quad, Blanchett and Redford; when these latter two in particular share scenes, there's a tangible quality of acting of the highest order on the screen.

They say the truth hurts, and as far as this film is concerned, the reality is it falls way short of its potential. Certainly a cast this good deserved better, as did we all.