The Truth Game (2001)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Simon Rumley

Writer:

Simon Rumley (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

When was the last time you told a lie?

Plot:

Accusations, revelations, lies and distrust abound when six friends, who think they know each other well, gather for a dinner party.

Plot Keywords:

Friend | Dinner | Accusation | Novelist | Loyalty

Cast

Paul Blackthorne	...	Dan
Tania Emery	...	Charlotte
Thomas Fisher	...	Alan
Selina Giles	...	Lilly
Stuart Laing	...	Eddy
Wendy Wason	...	Kate
Simone White	...	Alex (as Jennifer White)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Fujicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Rumleyvision

Trivia:

Cameo: [Piers Jackson]the film's producer is one of the police officers that pull over Kate's car.

Quotes:

Dan: Why can't you tell me what you want to say without playing "The Truth Game"?

Movie Connections:

Followed by Club Le Monde (2002)

Good, honest, raw study of late20something mores with humour

I liked The Truth Game; I think it was pretty good. Basically a bunch of late20somethings meet at someone's house and have dinner and talk and talk and fight and find themselves in fairly compromising positions...Given that the 'action' (ie: dialogue) takes place all in one house over a pretty real time line, I think it's a testament to the director and the actors that the film is pacy and never dull. I guess it's as much a testament to the script aswell (also by director Simon Rumley) that everything that's said is believable and interesting. There's quite a rawness, a frankness to the script which at times doesn't make for easy viewing. In some respects this is made harder to take due to the amount of similarly raw humour which is hard to define because it doesn't fall in line with any particular type of comedy BUT there is a lot of funny stuff here.

Probably what makes this film so unusual and, in my opinion, successful is that it has an honesty and integrity that is lacking in 99% of British films; it's not trying to be anything that it isn't, it isn't pandering to ideas about what 'sexy' films should be like or what audiences want. It just presents itself and it's up to the audience to accept it and live with it or not; interestingly most the characters have fairly severe flaws but this makes for more interesting viewing than watching the clearly defined good guy slug it out with the clearly defined bad guy. I also like the fact that it uses new actors 'cos there must be a helluva a lot around and frankly I for one have got bored of watching the kids from Trainspotting/Human Traffic etc appear in every other British film.

So yeah, nice one.