Title: True True Lie
Year: 2006
Director: Eric Styles
Starring: Jaime King ... Nathalie
Lydia Leonard ... Dana
Jason Durr ... Dr. Anthony
Annabelle Wallis ... Paige
Yasmin Paige ... Young Dana
Camille Solari ... Lucy
Tiffany Hannam-Daniels ... Young Nathalie
Diana Gherasim ... Young Paige
MPAA Rating: R
Studio: La Vie En Rose, Clubdeal (UK), Castel Film Romania
Distributor: The Weinstein Company, Intandem Films
Running time: 90 minutes
Official Website: http://www.camillesolari.net/
http://www.weinsteinco.com/
http://www.intandemfilms.com/
It is rare in this day and age to find a well crafted film that doesn’t get some theatrical play before going to DVD. With access to a mass audience through the internet, new directors marketing ‘practice’ films, writers selling underdeveloped screenplays and unburnished actors looking for a shortcut to stardom, we have a guaranteed recipe for mediocrity. As film critics and reviewers we see a lot of it. For those who follow my criticism and reviews, you know that I pull no punches and tell it critically the way I see it. You can imagine my surprise as I watched thriller TRUE TRUE LIE.
Released by soap-opera handsome Dr. Anthony (Jason Durr) after 12 years in an asylum; fragile, haunted, mid twenties Dana (Lydia Leonard) is reunited with her two best childhood friends, the dark, sexy and cold hearted Nathalie (Jaime King) and the nurturing and empathetic Paige (Annabelle Wallis). However, Dana soon begins to realize that the strange and gruesome events that led to her committal may not have been imaginary after all.
Shot in Bucharest, Romania, TRUE TRUE LIE represents helmer Eric Styles senior theatrical project. He is known much better across the pond then in the US, where he has been working in television, mostly for the BBC, since 1991. His work shows the fine tuning that a director gets from a decade and a half of work. Given a well polished Hitchcockian script by Camille Solari & Gary Humphreys (Incubus, 2006) and an excellent cast to work with, Styles proceeds to bring out their best at every plot twist and turn.
The three main female leads played by King, Leonard and Wallis are superb and it is no accident that nearly all of the cast is from Britain; where for some reason they have been training overall better actors than in the USA for decades. However American Jaime Kings’ Nathalie steals the show as the wicked, slightly over the top villainess. Just as you think she is going to spin out of control and into a caricature out of Dick Tracy (1990) she reins it back in and becomes the hot male-hating harlot that all men hope to capture and tame while simultaneously praying never to encounter at all. The only other American of note, Camille Solari, is unfortunately given little screen time as Dana’s best in-asylum friend, Lucy. But the moment she has is filled with her strong presence. Expect to see more of this stunning actress in the future.
TRUE TRUE LIE is a very sexy movie. It fairly drips with pheromones, hormones and other kinds of moans from start to finish. However it never climaxes and that only helps to perpetuate it. While there is only the slightest flash of nudity here and there, the anticipation is akin to long and excellent foreplay. Like the shower scene in the Psycho (1960), you see nothing…but everything.
So why hasn’t TRUE TRUE LIE been seen in theatres? Well for one thing the plot does have some holes in it and the editing has a few hurky-jerky jumps that take you out of the story for a moment here and there. The lighting at times is a bit underdeveloped and the dialogue occasionally is hard to decipher. But it is not much worse than some films I have seen on the big screen. However thrillers are not expected to be less than technically perfect or they go direct to DVD. That is reserved for “B-movie” horror, exploitation and gore. Also, I suspect, distributors were afraid that the story wouldn’t be strong enough to justify the expense of a theatrical promotion and the lead actresses weren’t well known enough to draw audiences into movie theater seats.
Ironically, TRUE TRUE LIE has yet to be released in the US. How I got to view a copy is my secret. So why not you may ask? Well for one thing, much of Dana’s insights come in mental flashbacks of her childhood with her girl friends playing the game True, True Lie. These three child actresses, Yasmin Paige (Young Dana), Tiffany Hannam-Daniels (Young Nathalie), Diana Gherasim (Young Paige) are wonderful. There is much sexual innuendo and dark and sexy adolescent play with Nicky played by Brock Everitt-Elwick, a boy who is working at Dana’s parents’ house. Prurient Americans have trouble with seeing children being sexual and violent. Think Pretty Baby (1978). The American distributor may not be sure they want the potential trouble. For another…will it sell in Wal-Mart?
If it does make it to the US market, be sure to rent or buy a copy. If not, call your friends in Europe or Australia and have them send you one in NTSC. Not only will you enjoy watching TRUE TRUE LIE, you may end up playing the game yourself.
It seems the movie was just recently released here in NA. I watched the DVD last night - definitely a sexy movie. As mentioned, the truth or dare style game seems like it would be very fun to play. I wrote up my own interpretation of the rules at True True Lie - Wild Couples Game for Erotic Fun. Hope other people find it entertaining.