Artsy Farcy
The Truth about Charlie
Review by Ross Anthony

This is an odd murder mystery. Fluidly sliding between a farce and a stylized suspense thriller, the truth about Charlie is that director Jonathan Demme just wanted to have a little fun bringing back the French New Wave fashion in this quirky remake of the '63 film "Charade."

A big fan of "Mark Wahlberg, I viewed this at a regular showing after having missed the screening. Mark's character is charmingly mysterious; he's rock solid and so is Thandie Newton as the recently widowed wife who finds herself in a Parisian mad-capped hunt for both Charlie's killer and the six million he had reportedly stolen.

The film suffers from a rocky send off and annoying hand-held camera work. Thankfully, the camera tends to steady as the interactions between the characters ripen. Somewhere in the middle, the film compels, as Demme experiments he harvests a few movie moment gems, but the field of roughage dominates.

I loved the whimsical resolution, perhaps Demme ought to have made these risky moves earlier in the film.



  • The Truth about Charlie. Copyright © 2002. PG-13.
  • Starring Mark Wahlberg, Thandie Newton, Tim Robbins, Joong-Hoon Park, Ted Levine, Lisa GayHamilton, Christine Boisson.
  • Directed by Jonathan Demme.
  • Screenplay by Jonatan Demme & Steve Schmidt and Peter Joshua & Jessica Bendinger. Peter Stone, Based on the motion picture "Charade"
  • Produced by Demme, Peter Saraf, Edward Saxon at Universal/Mediasream.



Grade..........................B-



Copyright © 2001. Ross Anthony, currently based in Los Angeles, has scripted and shot documentaries, music videos, and shorts in 35 countries across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. For more reviews visit: RossAnthony.com


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Last Modified: Saturday, 16-Sep-2006 07:52:06 PDT