Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve) is one of the Grande Dames of French cinema. Her autobiography has just been published while she's working on her latest acting job in a sci-fi drama. Her screenwriter daughter Lumir (Juliette Binoche) along with her actor husband Hank (Ethan Hawke) and their daughter Charlotte (Clementine Grenier) fly from New York to Paris to visit mom for the first time since they got married.
Lumir has not read her Fabienne's book...yet. Once in her bed, Lumir takes post-its and a pencil to the book's falsehoods. As the lies pile up, book-wise, Fabienne's defense for not revealing "the naked truth" is that "It's far from interesting."
Charlotte asks her grandmother if the rumors were true about her having witching powers. Grandma confirms that and granddaughter asks if she would turn one of her classmates into a slug. It's one thing for a grandparent to tell tall tales to a young child, it's another to have them published a large scale. The film showcases all the grey areas of not telling the truth.
You can hear Fabienne's eyes roll at the idea of her acting in a science fiction film. It's a sci-fi drama about a dying woman returning from outer space. Fabienne finds the material silly, but she gets to work with a young hot-shot director and it keeps her in the limelight. Even if she has to spend time with younger actresses like Manon (Manon Clavel) who peppers her with questions and the actress playing the 38-year-old version of her character (Ludivine Sagnier).
Of course, there's a parallel in the cinematic mom-daughter relationship. Off camera, there's also a lot of talk about a long-dead actress that was a part of Lumir's upbringing, which serious Deneuve fans will wonder if it's an homage to Deneuve's older sister Francoise Dorleac (the siblings appeared in The Young “Girls of Rochfort” and died of a car accident in 1967 at age 25).
While filming, Fabienne flubs her lines and blames it on a crew member being in her eye line (no Christian Bale rant here). Is she being a diva or is she slipping? The film and Deneuve's performance tells us it's probably somewhere in between.
This is director Kore-eda Hirokazu (“Shoplifters,” “Still Walking,” “After Life”) first film made outside of Japan and family strife is universal. “The Truth” is a domestic drama that handles conflict more like chess than boxing. This isn't “August: Osage County.” This is also the first time Deneuve and Binoche have worked together, two generations of French cinema royalty. I was ready for an acting version of a 15 round heavyweight championship fight. Instead, it's a verbal fencing duel.
Watching Deneuve and Binoche work together for the first time is the highlight of this film. Deneuve gets to throw serious shade at anyone in her path, sometimes to cover up her own vulnerability. She also gave me the biggest cinema laugh this year involving actresses with the same letter in their first and last name (Gloria Grahame for instance).
Binoche is an artist who is up for anything. She's able to play exhausted without being exhausting to watch. Dealing with her mother and the lies of her mother's book and her husband, who doesn't speak French at all and has a lapse in judgment halfway through the film. Hawke doesn't have a whole lot to do except play referee to the ladies in his life and keep their daughter occupied when things get hairy.
Not Really a Spoiler Alert: There is a form of family reconciliation, but the fact that it was done with minimal execution is a delight. The highs aren't too high and the lows aren't too low. Like life. Even the cliché of spontaneous dancing in public inspired by some performing street musicians flows naturally and doesn't ask the audience "Isn't this fun? Do you see the fun we are having?"
In ordinary times, I would praise IFC for releasing “The Truth” during the summer blockbuster season. It would be hailed as a much-needed palate cleanser after a couple months of big and loud and (always a chance) dumb. Come to think of it, since many of those films are on delay or some are going straight to streaming, the praise still holds up and that's the truth.
Matthew Socey is host of Film Soceyology for wfyi.org.
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