Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Ruth Wilson, Tom Burke, Hayley Squires, Tom Weston-Jones
Intro:
Ruth Wilson is spellbinding ...
Harry Wootliff’s (Only You) sophomore feature True Things is a claustrophobic psychodrama about loneliness and how the decision to submit to a toxic desire carries a dark price regardless of its seductive nature. Loosely adapted from Deborah Kay Davies’ novel True Things About Me, Wootliff’s film is as enigmatic as its protagonists and often as frustrating as they are.
The film centres on Kate (Ruth Wilson), who is living alone and slouching towards forty in a dead-end government job in Ramsgate. She’s slyly funny, bored, an erratic eater, a hot mess at times, and dreams a fantasy life where her sexual instincts can be fulfilled. Entering her life as a client of her job agency is a man we know only as Blond (Tom Burke). He’s handsome and a little rough, with a criminal record but he looks into Kate’s eyes and his frank sexuality disarms her. He invites her to lunch, and she agrees, but lunch soon turns out to be a torrid sexual encounter in a parking lot. Just before they have sex, he talks about people feeling the urge to throw themselves off high places because it is life affirming. Kate takes the leap metaphorically and the dizzying repercussions for her are as intoxicating as they are dangerous.
Kate’s best friend, Alison (Hayley Squires) is busy trying to set Kate up on dates with people because she knows she wants to “settle down and have kids.” Kate’s parents reiterate that this is what she wants. The question is, is it? Yes, she’s lonely and scrolls through social media looking at pictures of happy couples, but when presented with an appropriate potential partner (Tom Weston-Jones), she alienates him with her urgent sexuality.
Blond fulfils her sexual longings but he’s far from a potential husband. He disappears on her for days at a time, he’s emotionally unavailable, and it’s possible he’s using her for nefarious reasons. All of this doesn’t matter to Kate. She’s already installed him as a fantasy boyfriend. The closer she tries to get to Blond, the more he pulls away, only to return with a charming “alright darling” that belies his controlling and cold nature.
As the ‘relationship’ progresses, Kate’s psychological well-being begins to suffer. She becomes an emotional wreck as well as a social one. Her obsession with Blond and his whims causes her to lose her job (which she was only holding on to tenuously) and causes a rift with Alison and also her supportive but infantilising parents. Yet, through all of this, Kate clings to her phone hoping for a message from Blond. When it finally appears that none will be forthcoming, Kate’s state almost reaches psychosis.
Ashley Connor’s shaky cam cinematography echoes Kate’s breakdown: the audience begins to be confused as to the POV they are experiencing and Wootliff relies on heavy metaphorical shots to convey Kate’s mental state. The film does reach a point where fantasy and reality begin to blur too often, and the result is that the unreliability of imagery undermines the narrative thread.
Ruth Wilson is spellbinding as Kate. Wilson is an actor who can sell eroticism by engaging micro gestures to full-bodied abandon. She is also adept at capturing vulnerability; we believe Kate is blooming under the touch of Blond and we can also completely buy her veiled self-loathing as he turns away from her. Tom Burke, who is making a name for himself as a bit of a walking red flag for women after his turn in Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir is all animal magnetism. His awful bleached hair somehow makes him more seductive because it is a sign that he is, like Kate, resisting the status quo, although his reasons seem to stem from a social outsider perspective rather than Kate’s gendered reasons.
What lets the film down is a frankly undeserved final act. Wootliff and fellow screenwriter Molly Davies give Kate an opportunity to turn the tables on her unreliable lover and to come out of the relationship empowered. It’s an oddly reductive measure that undermines much of what made the protagonists attractive to each other. Also, with the number of fake out “endings”, it is up to the audience to interpret if any of it really happens. The film seems to be playing it straight, and if that is indeed the case, then Wootliff hasn’t put enough work in to make the final act appear earned.
True Things is carried by the mesmerising performances of Wilson and Burke. Their erotic chemistry is searing and neither actor needs to force the low-key deviancy of the relationship. Wootliff comprehends Wilson’s ability to convey hunger with a single look and takes advantage of the actor’s talent.
The film ironically does struggle with maintaining veracity and consistency, but what cannot be denied is what an absolutely phenomenal performer Ruth Wilson is and how much she commits to bringing Kate to life in her nuanced portrayal of a woman on the edge who ultimately decides that taking a leap is her decision alone.
