Great Film: The Truth About Charlie
Jonathan, how could you?
I really wanted to like this movie. Jonathan Demme is one of my favorite
film makers and I thought if anyone could remake one of my favorite
movies
of all time, Demme could. Demme couldn't.
Newton and Robbins are ok, Wahlberg doesn't work at all, and the other
"evil" characters who were so memorable in Charade come across as
interchangeable cyphers.
I usually like Demme's music selection, but here there didn't seem to be
any
sort of unifying theme behind his music. And, it certainly wasn't
Mancini's
wonderful score.
But the biggest Truth about Charlie is that Demme's rewrite is simply
awful.
In the original, Charlie is a nobody and so he doesn't get in the way of
all
the other characters. Here he has a face and is, apparently, the big
villain, so we have to be treated to a slew of foggy flashbacks that halt
the flow of the story.
Newton and Wahlberg lip-lock so early, there's absolutely none of the
playful sexual tension of the original. And, instead of Grant's cocky,
end-of-the-film surprise, we get a bathetic Wahlberg begging Newton to
forgive him. Bleacch.
The reworking of the story that sets everything in motion is so muddled
I'm
still not sure just exactly what was happening and why.
And the final big thing missing is the element of wonderful surprise
Donen
crafted so well. In the original Grant's multiple characters are peeled
back
with delicious surprise at each new revelation ending with the final,
perfect surprise at the end of the film. And the moment when the original
film reveals the big secret is still thrilling, even after watching it a
dozen times. In Charlie, the big secret becomes a tiny flicker of
something
in Newton's eyes and when it is finally revealed, it's a moment that the
word "anticlimax" was designed for.
It's such a shame that Demme made such a muddle of something that
originally
was so clean and clearly presented. As so many others have done, I
strongly
recommend you skip this one and just go back to the original.
Cast
- Emil Zadapec played by Ted Levine
- Joshua Peters played by Mark Wahlberg
- Charlie played by Stephen Dillane
- Regina Lambert played by Thandie Newton
- Lola Jansco played by Lisa Gay Hamilton
- Sylvia played by Sakina Jaffrey
- Junior Military Officer played by Olga Sékulic
