The Unbelievable Truth

Mind you, it's a wafer thin storyline. A heart-warming little story of an ex-convict returning to a city, and the infatuation of the local Lolita has for him, it touches you, ever so softly, from behind the facade of the boisterous small town existence and the foibles of the small group of townspeople who form the nucleus of the story. At the end of it, you're glad you sat down to watch it - it's a laid-back mind-soother, which leaves you with a warm feeling all over.

What elevates the film by several rungs is, however, the superb performance of Robert Burke as the mercurial, unpredictable and enigmatic Joshua Hutton, who leaves you ambivalent about his real intentions till the very end, when all is revealed. Supporting him, ably, is the petite Adrienne Shelly, who may not be strictly pretty, but has an elfin charm - not really a little girl any more, but not yet a woman. They complement each other perfectly, and it is this chemistry that makes the film glow, and forms the perfect foil to the humdrum backdrop of everything else that is going on.

It's rewarding, and relaxing, viewing - a perfect de-stresser, if there ever was one. If you can get hold of a copy, hold on, tight.

Clever Indy film-making at it's best!!! This film jump started a genre. Hal Hartley's masterpiece brims with clever dialogue and funny performances. Adrianne Shelley is a standout as Audrey who is convinced that the world is soon to blow up. Chris Cooke should be getting a lot more work after his winning performance as Vic Hugo. He's a delight to watch as his daughter Audrey bargains with him on about going to college. And Robert Burke is great as the quiet Josh, the returning man with a past. You catch something new every time with this film ... like the funny way everyone fights in the movie (elaborate pushing matches). An original film and thoroughly enjoyable. Great soundtrack too ... under Hal Hartley's alias of Ned Rifle. Highly recommended ... and definitely more than worth than 50¢ at your video rental and won't put you to sleep if you like original, clever, landmark Indy films like this one is.

"The Unbelievable Truth" is a funny and often beautiful film that seeks to find the sweet and humorous within the darkest of subject matter. At times it is darkly comic and borderline cynical, while at others it is extraordinarily romantic and melodramatic. These two tones do not clash and conflict like one would expect, instead they both morph into one another- showcasing the ups and downs of life. During a very dramatic scene, writer-director Hal Hartley will sneak in a hilarious moment or line and masterfully weave it into the moment in such a way that it feels natural rather than rough.

For a film shot on such a low budget, it is highly impressive in almost every conceivable manner. However, it naturally is littered with flaws that distracted me from the movie watching experience. The sound design can be awful at times because of the sometimes constant cutting in and out of audio-reminiscent of the infamous "Birdemic" (although it isn't nearly as bad or as noticeable). Also, while some of the performances are pretty great and, at times, hilarious, some of them are overly wooden and annoying. It also feels as if its trying a little too hard to be quirky and different at times, plus its got some pacing issues and felt a lot longer than 90 minutes to me, which is only a minor complaint in this case because what was going on during those 90 minutes was fascinating.

Since this movie is so beautiful and tender in its humor and romance, I recommend it for most audiences who can handle a slightly slower and more "artsy" little movie.

It would be true to say that there is not much action here, no bloody fights or car chases but it is just so endearing. Adrienne Shelly and Robert John Burke do well as lost idealist and not so new man in town respectively but everyone contributes. Hal Hartley performs magic with his inexperienced cast to involve us so inextricably with a developing and very human situation that really has nowhere to go. The dialogue is spot on and it is a joy to watch the character interchange and feel the tangible electricity between this disparate group as the electricity of past events, much mistold, unravel and retie. Masterful.

New York kooky indie-moviemaker Hal Hartley's feature debut, THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH tantalizes a somewhat morbid idea that can a reformed manslaughter-convicted ex-con gets a second chance in his hometown where the crime was perpetrated? Freshly out of prison, Josh (Burke) returns to Long Island where his felony has been disproportionately mythologized, he impresses auto-repair shop owner Vic Hugo (Cooke, enjoy some unorthodox outpourings that are rarely seen in a materialistic father) with his autodidactic mechanic skill, therefore he is hired.

Meanwhile, Vic's teenage daughter Audry (Shelly, in her film debut), saturated in her own teen angst, becomes world-weary with nuclear-induced eschatology, she dumps her obsessive boyfriend Emmet (Sauer) and in turn, takes a shine to the reticent Josh, only the latter chooses to suppress his reciprocal feelings and cautiously declines her advancement, clearly learning from his past misdeeds, Josh's celibate stoicism and dark get-up frequently prompts a question from strangers "are you a priest?".

A rebellious and disgruntled Audry procrastinates her college education and takes a bash at modeling, and soon becomes the talk of the small community as she starts to bare all in the magazine spreads. So what does it take to bring the two drifting-apart lovebirds together? The titular "truth" becomes an operative ice-breaker when the manslaughter myth comes clean in a belated confession of the sole witness.

Basking in a loopy, small-town monotony under a simmering temperature that characteristically flags up Audry and Josh's peculiarity, Hartley's meet-cute anachronistically finds a kindred spirit in Todd Solondz's faux-naïf comedies, and juxtaposing Adrienne Shelley's impish wackiness with Robert John Burke's four-square stolidness, chemistry has been incredibly cooked up, to validate that underneath their respective volatile and impassive surfaces, indeed, it is just two tender hearts hankering for a connection to retain some self-worth in a nihilistic fable.

Rounding up a coterie of game players (a puckish Edie Falco included) and shot with pristine efficiency and a low-key kuso-inflected smugness, at the end of the day, THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH briskly augurs Hartley's cottage-industry, outlier-hinged hallmark that is brimful of pleasurable absurdity and sensible geniality.