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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
The Truth About Charlie
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 out of 4
Review by Susan Granger
3 stars out of 4
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It takes chutzpah to revise the concept of Stanley Donen's
comedy/mystery "Charade" (1963) yet versatile writer/director Jonathan Demme
("Married to the Mob," "Silence of the Lambs") doesn't disappoint. Set in Paris,
the convoluted story revolves around lovely Regina Lampert (Thandie Newton)
whose secretive art-dealer husband (Stephen Dillane) has been murdered, their
apartment ransacked, and six million dollars in diamonds is missing. Who killed
him? Why? And what's become of the missing fortune? Eager to help her are Joshua
Peters (Mark Wahlberg), a flirtatious yet cryptic American she met in
Martinique, and an ambiguous U.S. Embassy official (Tim Robbins), while a trio
of her husband's former cohorts (Ted Levine, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Joon-Hoon Park)
is in hot pursuit, along with the Police Commandant (Christine Boisson) who has
more questions than answers. Duplicity and deceit abound here but not much
comedy. That's been lost in this unconventional, oddball mixture of styles and
genres - with a particular nod to Charles Aznavour and the melancholy complexity
of the French New Wave of the '50s and '60s. On the other hand, the film is
expertly crafted. Jonathan Demme is a visual stylist who pays meticulous
attention to detail with Tak Fujimoto's splendid cinematography and Rachel
Portman's eclectic musical score. Too bad, then, that the result seems less than
the sum of its parts. While vacuous Mark Wahlberg hasn't a shred of Cary Grant's
sophisticated, suave charm, petite Thandie Newton successfully evokes a fey,
enchanting quality reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn. So, on the Granger Movie Gauge
of 1 to 10, "The Truth About Charlie" is a tantalizing 7, a tart, twisting
re-make that still pales in comparison with the fun of the original.
Copyright © 2002 Susan Granger
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