by The Fluffer
In a rebuff to The Butcher, The Fluffer hits the tools to find unloved movies that are worthy of reappraisal.
We remember vividly when The Truth About Charlie hit cinemas back in 2002 – because we specifically didn’t go to see it. In our snobby way, we were far too offended that (a) Jonathan Demme was cashing in on his Silence of the Lambs success with remakes (b) he’d had the gall to remake Charade (1963) and (c) he replaced Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant and Walter Matthau with Thandie Newton, Mark Wahlberg (stepping in at the last minute for Will Smith), and Tim Robbins. And when Charlie sank without a trace and received poor reviews, we felt justified, and the film became another example in the theory that winning a Best Director Oscar can hurt people’s careers.
Still, we were prompted to give it a look after reading David Stewart’s biography on Demme, There’s No Going Back, which pointed out that during the director’s post-Lambs/Philadelphia glow, he did cash in, but more by becoming a producer and mentoring other filmmakers. And that he made The Truth About Charlie immediately after 1998’s Beloved, which was heavy going with its slaves, sexual assault, infanticide, Oprah, bland poster, and so on… So, Demme was in the mood to have a little fun; he saw Charade and figured here was a chance for him to showcase Thandie Newton, who’d been in Beloved, and display his love for the French New Wave without having to do too much work on a script.
And The Truth About Charlie is really, really fun. We actually think it’s more fun to watch now than it would have been in 2002 because you can appreciate it more – for instance, Thandie Newton never became a top rank star; so, we get to experience her looking gorgeous and having a grand old time in a proper star vehicle. In 2002, the sight of Mark Wahlberg in a beret speaking French made people laugh and yes, we’ll be honest, it still does, but he’s totally committed to the part, and it’s so wonderful to see him trying, because somewhere along the line he gave up and became a businessman playing to his red state audience. And if Will Smith in the lead probably would have made this a hit, Wahlberg is charming in his way.
Back in 2002, our hearts would sink whenever Tim Robbins came on screen because this was the period when every role he played seemed have some fun-killing subtext about American Policy Being Bad (War of the Worlds, Arlington Road) – now, that’s possibly unfair but it’s how we felt at the time – but now that’s passed, even Robbins’ dodgy accent in The Truth About Charlie is endearing. And we can appreciate how ahead of the curve Demme was with diverse casting, the villains including Park Joong-hoon and LisaGay Hamilton (although the director still treated his first wife – an Australian, Evelyn Purcell – not very well; read Stewart’s book for the goss).
Most of all, The Truth About Charlie is full of Demme’s love for French cinema to such a degree that it’s infectious – the tracking shots, music, language, food, lights, locations. The cast includes not only Charles Aznavour (both Newton and Wahlberg play characters who know who Aznavour is, which in itself is darn cute), but Anna Karina AND Agnes Varda AND Christina Boisson (who played Sylvia Kristel’s friend from 1974’s Emmanuelle, the one from the swinging chair with the magazine of Paul Newman, and those who’ve seen the film will know the scene we’re talking about).
It helps that the script is fairly faithful to Peter Stone’s original, one of the best light thrillers of all time. And if Thandie and Mark aren’t Audrey and Carey, well, they’re still enjoyable. And making this sort of movie is hard – even Peter Stone couldn’t do it again (Mirage, Arabesque, Jigsaw), and other modern riffs struggled (Knight and Day, This Means War, The Killers).
The Truth About Charlie… worth a rewatch.
