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★★★☆☆
16 March 2020
A movie review of THE TRUTH. |
D: Hirokazu Koreeda (SHOPLIFTERS, AFTER THE STORM, THE THIRD MURDER, AFTER THE STORM, OUR LITTLE SISTER; LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON; I WISH, AIR DOLL, STILL WALKING, HANA, AFTER LIFE).
S: Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke, Manon Clavel, Ludivine Sagnier.
“When I read that script, I said I’d sell my soul to the devil to play that part,” Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve)
To daughter Lumir (Juliette Binoche) maybe she did. In a melodramatic, exasperated, eye-rolling way. Matriarch Fabienne Dangeville is at least not the savage Violet Weston (Meryl Streep) of AUGUST, OSAGE COUNTY [2013]. Fabienne is often unfairly cutting. You do not want to be in her field of vision. We first meet Fabienne, an acting legend played by an acting legend, being awkwardly and comically interviewed. THE TRUTH then stays away from winking to the camera. It’s not TV show ENTOURAGE [2004-2011].
S: Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke, Manon Clavel, Ludivine Sagnier.
“When I read that script, I said I’d sell my soul to the devil to play that part,” Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve)
To daughter Lumir (Juliette Binoche) maybe she did. In a melodramatic, exasperated, eye-rolling way. Matriarch Fabienne Dangeville is at least not the savage Violet Weston (Meryl Streep) of AUGUST, OSAGE COUNTY [2013]. Fabienne is often unfairly cutting. You do not want to be in her field of vision. We first meet Fabienne, an acting legend played by an acting legend, being awkwardly and comically interviewed. THE TRUTH then stays away from winking to the camera. It’s not TV show ENTOURAGE [2004-2011].
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Fabienne’s memoirs have just been published and their fallout triggers the film. Screenwriter daughter Lumir has just flown in from America, with husband, an actor, Hank (Ethan Hawke), and their young daughter, Charlotte (Clémentine Grenier). Fabienne did not send the manuscript to Lumir. She reads a published copy on arrival. The autobiography does not go down well with two of Fabienne’s nearest and dearest. “I can’t find any truth in here”, injuriously states Lumir. Added into the mix is mysterious, deceased Sarah, who hangs over Fabienne and Lumir, dragging proceedings into soap opera territory.
Fabienne is a show-off, with a smattering of poorly concealed humble-bragging. Fabienne represents those who lack self-censorship when you have been famous for a long time. From the outside, she has so much success. Inside, she must be in anguish as to mortality, her dwindling celebrity luminescence, and the tug of her conscience. The mixture of humour and spite, being channelled by Catherine Deneuve, makes THE TRUTH watchable. “’Actor’ is saying a lot,” of her son-in-law. Brutal. “I’ve never apologised to a man,” she casually throws out. Letting the side down (as usual) is Juliette Binoche. This maybe controversial, but Juliette Binoche is an overrated actor. I can’t think of a movie she has appeared in where another performer could not have played the same part equally as well if not better.
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All is not lost. A story about three generations of women is welcome. Ethan Hawke is given a thankless part, but one is glad he is here. The character is humble, or is forced to be. Either way, self-aware, labelling himself a “second rate TV actor”. Players talk in front of Hank in French. Who is ruder, them, or him for not knowing the language of his wife? Is it a side comment on the price one pays for insularity or superiority or lack of education?
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THE TRUTH is a movie ostensibly concerning the movie industry. The silver screen business is really just a backdrop for the lies we tell others and ourselves. The family confrontation at the heart is not in the same league as say MARGOT AT THE WEDDING [2007]. THE TRUTH is uneven, and a disappointing offering from director Hirokazu Koreeda. He had been on an excellent four film run from OUR LITTLE SISTER [2015] to SHOPLIFTERS [2018].
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