The Unbelievable Truth

B

I'm not a big fan of offbeat dramedies because they tend to be a little quirky or bleak or both. Though I haven't seen many, Hall Hartley's The Unbelievable Truth is definitely one of the most offbeat ones I've seen.

Josh (Robert Burke) returns home to Long Island after doing a long stint in prison. His arrival sparked the small town criers chattering over the reason he was convicted. They knew for sure that he had something to do with the death of Pearl's (Julia McNeal) father and sister many years ago. Josh managed to find work for a local mechanic, Victor (Christopher Cooke), alongside Pearl's boyfriend, Mike (Mark Bailey). Things became heated up when Victor's brilliant but impossibly cynical daughter, Audry (Adrienne Shelley), falls in love with Josh.

Experiencing The Unbelievable Truth was unique. It wasn't a powerful movie, or at any rate influencial, but it did have its original moments. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but some of the characters talked like they were on stage rather than in a movie. There were slightly excessive gesturing and exaggerated tones of voices. Performances were solid all round, with Shelley, Burke and Cooke standing out.

Writer, director and editor Hal Hartley did a good job balancing between the dark elements of the movie without them becoming too biting. Sex and death were discussed alot, but Hartley wisely sidestepped the temptation of actually showing any of them on screen.