Venice Film Festival 2019: THE TRUTH (LA VÉRITÉ)

Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda follows up his Academy Award nominated feature Manbiki kazoku (Shoplifters) from last year with his latest effort La vérité (The Truth). Koreeda‘s film is a french comedic drama that follows the reunion of daughter Lumir (Juliette Binoche) and her actress mother Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve).

Prolonged Emotional Chaos

Fabienne is celebrating the launch of her tell-all biography that causes a storm within the family and with her long time workers. To make matters worse, her latest performance alongside, and often against, a new up-and-coming actress (Manon Clavel) causes a rivalry that spills into more personal issues. The household becomes crippled with splinters from always sitting on the fence, and a ticking time bomb of emotions is ready to explode.

The greatest strength of Koreeda‘s film is the performances. Binoche and Deneuve are acting powerhouses. The slow minute squabble is delicately produced with a terrific screenplay by Koreeda that has a meandering underbelly of venom that slowly but surely works its way into a form of prolonged emotional chaos. It turns into quite a severe watch at times.

Tension that is Squandered

The squabbling thankfully never becomes an irritation only due to how compelling and engaging Binoche crafts her character. She is in a state of internal conflict that is the result of far more than just the pain from her mother, however, exploration of her character is dropped in favor of excessive focus on Deneuve‘s character. This focus on Fabienne is repetitive, and not allowing the film to explore and dive into territories that flesh out the family dynamic on a whole, especially Binoche‘s relationship with her father Pierre (Roger Van Hool), or husband Hank (Ethan Hawke) is problematic, and any tension is squandered.

Unfortunately, there is a lot here that simply does not belong, or, instead, is there for the right reasons and ignored. Sadly, Ethan Hawke is all but redundant in his role as husband Hank to Binoche’s Lumir. Hawke has only one minuscule sequence to add a degree of flavour. That sequence is referred to a few times but serves no consequence or impact on the overall proceedings of the narrative.

The Truth often struggles to stay relevant throughout the plot. It is a wasted opportunity that Koreeda foils in his master plan in creating this majestic emotionally involved feature. It succumbs to a conventional narrative despite its razor-sharp screenplay.

The Truth: Conclusion

Deneuve works wonders as does Binoche; together they construct a ferocity layered with a hearted poignancy but dig deeper and you find that Hirokazu Koreeda’s film loses sight of what is captivating and what is conventionally dull — the result is a feature lacking in intrigue.

Will you be heading out to catch the latest Hirokazu Koreeda feature? Let us know in the comments below!

La vérité will have its North American release it Toronto International Film Festival on September 9th, 2019.