The Truth About Charlie | | Cast : | Thandie Newton, Mark Wahlberg, Tim Robbins | | Director : | Jonathan Demme | | Studio : | Universal Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound | | Released Date : | October 25, 2002 | | DVD Released Date : | April 12, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | Uneven Thriller. French New Wave-Hollywood Hybrid. | Content
 | Recently married Regina Lambert (Thandie Newton) returns to her home in Paris to find that her husband Charlie has been murdered and their apartment emptied of its contents in "The Truth About Charlie", a loose remake of the 1963 film "Charade". Regina soon learns that her husband was not who she thought and that he was in possession of a great deal of money that a lot of people would like to claim...and they all believe that she must have it. Three thuggish former comrades of Charlie's harass her. A man claiming to work for the super-secret Office of Defense Cooperation (Tim Robbins) says that the money belongs to the US government. Commandant Dominique (Christine Boisson), the police detective assigned to Charlie's murder investigation, believes the money will lead to the killer. And a kind and mysterious stranger named Joshua Peters (Mark Wahlberg) seems to always turn up when Regina is in need. Regina is thrust into a maelstrom of secrets and deception from her husband's past. She must navigate this colorful and dangerous cast of characters while she tries to find that money and get everyone off of her back.
"The Truth About Charlie" is a bumpy mixture of good, bad, and mediocre filmmaking. It showcases Thandie Newton's charisma well. The performances of Christine Boisson and Lisa Gay Hamilton, as one of Charlie's former comrades, are also worth a look. The rest of the cast is simply adequate. "The Truth About Charlie" takes on a distinctly New Wave style in some scenes -but not throughout. A very contrived and funny tango sequence would never appear in an American film, but is quintessentially French, as is the movie's ending. French singer Charles Aznavour is dropped, singing, into a few scenes too, in very Southern European fashion. It looks like there was a conscious attempt on the part of director Jonathan Demme to make a sort of hybrid French-American style. This injects some stylistic vitality at times, but lends a patent inconsistency to the film more than anything. Nevertheless, "The Truth About Charlie" is a generally entertaining thriller with some captivating ingredients and a few fine performances, and it is enjoyable on that basis. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | VERY VERY loosely based on Charade | Content
| After regurgitating, I was able to collect my thoughts on this film. It starts out inept and only gets worse from there. You immediately have to turn off the sound to bypass the noise that introduces the film. Then you get your first taste of nudity designed to cover up a pathetically lacking dialog. At first the camera is jumping around and you figure it will finally slow down and focus some time during the film. Can you say Blair Witch? It only gets worse so get out the Dramamine. The comedy had been stripped along with any semblance of synergy between the so called actors. The film looks like a high school contest submission.
Even the story has-been changed leaving a hand full of names that are the only thing that was brought over from the previous script. The TV type plot is not worthy of being described here. Mixed with the sound bite formula and poor music is a name recognition plug for some has-been singer.
What? you say "how about the free copy of Charade on the combined produc?" Believe me of you have to buy this then Charade is not free. You will be much better off to find a copy of the Criterion Collection version.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 07, 2005 | | Summary | Potential....Wasted | Content
| I saw the original Charade when I was in high school and was mesmerized by the relationship between Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. At that time, in 1963, New Wave cinema was in vogue and while I tried with movies like "Jules and Jim" and "It's my life", I do like the more classical style like Charade. It had an all star cast, with the Walter Matthau, James Coburns and the best goon, George Kennedy, who played the man with a hook for a hand. It was a lightweight farce that did not take itself too seriously, except maybe for the last 5 mintues of the movie and reflected the carefree attitude of a brit living in Paris.
When Universal pictures heard of a this remake of Charade, they must have been drooling. It was going to be directed by Jonathan Demme, the gifted director of both Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. Universal would also be happy with getting Mark Wahlberg and Tim Robbins for the role, but Demme probably had to convince the talking heads of using Thandie Newton, who Demme had directed in Beloved. However, Thandie looks and does justice to the role of Regina Lampert.
Regina Lampert is married to Charles, a roguish fellow who is killed on a train. Regina finds out that Charles was involved in the theft of $6 million dollars worth of gems and his former partners are out for their share, which never came about. She has no idea that she has the gems or the money, but she does have it on her and the charming Joshua Peters comes into her life, at first to protect her, but soon it seems that he may be apart of the problem.
Like I said before, Thandie does justice to the role, playing Regina as a very vulnerable but feisty British woman. She is always in the state of confusion as different sides play her to get to the money, but she is always sympathetic to the audience. However, her love interest Wahlberg falls flat on his face.
Let me ask you this, can you see Wahlberg doing a Cary Grant impersonation? I can't and he does not nothing to convince me that he can play a charming, yet controlling character. He has limited emotional appeal and he does not have the dry, slight self-deprecating humour that Cary Grant brought to the role. If I were Regina, I would constantly be scared of Wahlberg consistently showing up to places that he should not be at. He acts like the stalker in his 1994 movie Fear.
The 3 muskateers that are out to get their money back do little better. Ted Levine, who played the uber creep "Buffalo Bill" in Silence of the Lambs plays his usual southern gothic weirdo. Lisa Gay Hamilton is a little better as the militant Lola and Joon Hoon Park, famous in his native Korea as a comedic actor, uncomfortably struggles with the concept of speaking English as Lee.
Demme does a little better. He seems wanting to merge the New Wave filmmaking with his classic story, so we get faded images, grimy hotel locations and no steadicam. I expected more from master cinematographer Tak Fujimoto (who is a legend with movies like Signs, The Sixth sense, Silence of the Lambs and Gladiator under his belt) but instead we get a shaky lens and camera tricks that undermines the whole movie.
I think that more thought was needed for this movie and Universal only saw a quick buck. With a better cast and a different approach to directing, this could have been a fun romp with a mix of suspense...but in it's current form, it is a jumbled mess....Rating: C-
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| Rating | | | Date | May 13, 2005 | | Summary | The Truth About a Junk Movie | Content
| I felt my time committment to this was violated. I have found merit in many low-rated movies, but TRUTH consisted of preposterous story-telling and wasted film-making resources.
I can echo the following comments made previously:
- The Chemistry between Walberg and Newton was non-existent. You kept asking yourself during the movie, why do they like each other, and why do I care what happens to them.
- The constant close-ups on people's faces was annoying.
- The plot dragged along and seemed to go nowhere. There was no suspense. Tim Robbins appeared to be suspicious and guilty the entire time. And when they all go out dancing together, you wonder why Newton is scared of any of them. ( >> no kidding, what's with the bi-polar character dynamics??)
This was just a dumb, silly movie. The direction made gorgeous Thandiwe Newton look fairly witless, and everyone else so transparently unbelievable. The filming did not make the interesting cast or the beautiful European cities look particularly good.
Instead of a much-needed sense of danger, TRUTH has only a distracting, whimsical insipidness, amid cheap card-trick swicheroos and a pasted fairy-tale ending.
Barely a decent time waster. And the opening shot was so promisingly French. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 07, 2005 | | Summary | The 3 Villains are Good in Original But Boring in Remake! | Content
| I agree with a recent review that said the wrong movie is on side A. Side A shound be the original movie Charade which is a classic and the boring uninspired remake The Truth About Charlie should be on side B! Now unlike some other reviewers I had no problems with the acting by Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton and I also liked Tim Robbins as Carson Dyle though I preferred Walter Matthau as Dyle in the original movie! This movie had it's moments but it wsa mainly very disappointing because the plot was choppy and while I liked the 3 villains in the original movie who were portrayed by George Kennedy, James Coburn and Ned Glass I just didn't like the 3 villains in the remake and I thought they were very boring! Now I would recommend this DVD to people who want a widescreen edition of Charade and can't afford or do not want to pay Criterion's high price and don't care that they won't get the commentary that the Criterion DVD Has. I personally couldn't afford the Criterion DVD so I had to buy this instead but at least I got a good copy of Charade for much less! |
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