The Truth Parent Guide

The Truth (or La verité, it’s original French title) could easily be accused of being a foreign film-geek love fest. Acclaimed Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda paints the screen with two of France’s biggest actresses: Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche. The two butt heads over their mother-daughter relationship. Add Ethan Hawke playing Binoche’s American wannabe-actor husband, who doesn’t speak much French, and we’ve touched three continents with an excuse to have enough English dialogue to perhaps lure American audiences.

Fabienne (Deneuve) is, appropriately, playing a once-beloved film actress who is reluctantly (and not too gracefully) approaching the sunset of her career. The leading roles that used to fall into her lap are captured by younger stars to whom Fabienne now plays second fiddle. Within this movie, Fabienne has been offered a bit part in another movie. Her role is that of an aging daughter whose younger-looking mother (Manon Clavel) lives in space to avoid dying from a fatal disease. The sci-fi setup is a not so subtle metaphor for Fabienne’s off-screen relationship with her daughter Lumir (Binoche).

Fabienne’s hopes for maintaining relevancy are also invested in the release of her autobiography. The “tell all” book is good reason for Lumir to come visit from the U.S., bringing along her husband Hank (Hawke) and daughter Charlotte (Clémentine Grenier). But soon after Lumir cracks open the cover she recognizes there’s more fiction than fact on the pages. Is seems her mother continues to live within a fabricated fantasy that has room for only one leading lady.

The most interesting moments in this film happen when The Truth dips its dialogue into exploring the temptation to live our lives within the safety of our own script. Even more compulsive is the desire to make ourselves into the character we want others to believe we are. But don’t expect these messages to be delivered in a bullet-point handout. The mix of French and English (subtitles are available) and leisurely paced storytelling will be anything but appealing to audiences who aren’t up to some deep thinking and focused attention. Alcohol use, often to drown disappointment, a character’s cigarette addiction and some sexual innuendo may pose additional concerns.

Is it worth the worth the investment? Perhaps. If you are a parent, older teen or film buff willing to dive into a self-examination of scripts you have come to rely on in your own life, then you may find a little bit of The Truth in this movie.

About author

Rod Gustafson

Rod Gustafson has worked in various media industries since 1977. He founded Parent Previews in 1993, and today continues to write and broadcast the reviews in newspapers, on radio and (of course) on the Internet. His efforts also include writing and researching media in all its forms and observing how it effects society and culture. He and his wife Donna have four children.