Movie Review: The Truth

The Truth *** ½ / *****
Directed by: Hirokazu Koreeda   
Written by: Hirokazu Koreeda the film within the film based on the short story by Ken Liu.
Starring: Catherine Deneuve (Fabienne Dangeville), Juliette Binoche (Lumir), Ethan Hawke (Hank), Clémentine Grenier (Charlotte), Manon Clavel (Manon Lenoir), Alain Libolt (Luc Garbois), Christian Crahay (Jacques), Roger Van Hool (Pierre).
 

It’s always a tricky proposition when filmmakers venture outside their home country to try and tell a story in a different culture, a different language – and a trickier one for filmmakers whose films seem so ingrained in their own culture. While there is certainly universal truth in the films of Japanese master Hirokazu Koreeda – they are also very Japanese in many ways. The Truth, his first film outside of Japan, is actually set in France – and most of the dialogue is in French – although he also includes an American character, delightfully played by Ethan Hawke, who doesn’t really understand anything being said, so he spends most of the movie grinning like an idiot, trying to keep up. While the film certainly doesn’t live up the best or Koreeda’s films – like his masterwork, Shoplifters, which won the Palme D’or two years ago, it’s still a rather delightful film – mostly when it simply sits back and lets two of the greatest French actresses in history, Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche share the screen together.
 
In the film, Deneuve plays Fabienne Dangeville, a famous French actress, in her twilight years, who is just about to have her memoir published, and is playing a supporting role in a new sci-fi film. Her daughter, Lumir (Binoche) is returning to France with her husband, Hank (Ethan Hawke) and their daughter Charlotte (Clementine Grenier) for the first time in years – there has always been an unresolved tension between the mother/daughter – and its unlikely to be resolved now.
 
The Truth makes literal was has always been an undercurrent in Koreeda’s films – about the performances everyone plays to be part of a family. This is a fractured family – they don’t really know each other that well, maybe don’t even especially want to, but for the run of this trip anyway, they are going to play like they are one. In the film, Deneuve is essentially playing an actress much like herself – a legendary actress, loved by the industry. She knows this, and so is very demanding of everyone around her. She constantly speaks of truth – how she needs it to be able to act, is dismissive of Hank, who is also an actor, but one on TV in America, saying he is playing at acting, not really acting. And yet, her obsession with the truth doesn’t extend to herself. Her latest memoir is full of fiction and half-truths – she seems to be taking the advice of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance – when the legend becomes truth, print the legend. Lumir is perhaps the only one who knows how much is fiction – or even cares about it. She sees her mother as a hypocrite – and doesn’t much like it. This is why she went to America in the first place – and hasn’t been back in so long.
 
The film is at its best when it pits Deneuve and Binoche against each other – Lumir is the only one who challenges Fabienne, and the actresses rise to the challenge. This isn’t exactly Autumn Sonata or anything – Koreeda being a much gentler filmmaker than Bergman – but it’s still a pleasure to see two of the greats of French acting pitted against each other. When you add in the delightful Hawke performance – it’s not deep, but it’s fun to see him have fun in it, and the movie within a movie – which is perhaps too on the nose in the way it reflects and refracts the mother-daughter relationship, but is fun in the same way it was fun to see the film within a film in Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria, also with Binoche.
 
The Truth lacks the emotional gut punch that Koreeda’s best films have – you likely won’t leave the film with the same kind of emotional upheaval you experience in Shoplifters, Nobody Knows or Like Father Like Son. This is lighter film, requiring a lighter touch and Koreeda pulls it off. This is nowhere near his best work – but its good film just the same.