“Truth”: All the president’s documents undo Robert Redford’s Dan Rather

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“Truth” opens Friday at Sundance and Marcus Palace Cinemas. R, 2:05, two and a half stars out of four.

James Vanderbilt is a screenwriter who revels in ambiguity. He wrote one of the best films of the ’00s, David Fincher’s “Zodiac,” in which the notorious San Francisco serial killer was maybe-not-quite revealed, but certainly not caught, at the end of the film.

There’s a similar uncertainty as to what’s really going on in the perhaps ironically titled “Truth,” Vanderbilt’s dramatization of the 2004 scandal at CBS over possibly forged documents suggesting that President George W. Bush had used family connections to get out of going to Vietnam. The evidence remains inconclusive either way as to their veracity, but longtime CBS anchor Dan Rather resigned, and his producer Mary Mapes was fired.

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