The Truth About Emanuel

8 of 10. Truly a film that can be considered art, telling a bizarre story of how a teen girl deals with more typical, everyday parents, neighbors, boys, and a psycho. It manages to do this while still keeping it sexy and mysterious all the way to the end.

Maybe it deserves a higher score, but there are some character incongruities and other annoyances that might not be noticed by the target audience, but get in the way of us non-teen girls with functioning attention spans.

Nonetheless, the combination of the story, settings, colors, clothes, music, and synergy among an odd assortment of actors make for all the things one expects from a film getting an Academy Award nomination.

The lead actresses deserve 9/10. The story concept 8/10. The whole package 6/10. The symbiotic relationship between the lead characters is realistic and develops quickly. The story line is a bit contrived but does express the characters' deep sense of loss and interdependency. It is very unfortunate that some of that energy is lost during the final symbolic scenes. Instead of leaving a lasting impression, they fall a bit flat. Nevertheless, this film is worth watching for the acting alone. It was impressive that Kaya Scodelario developed such a realistic American accent for the role. It adds another dimension to her excellent acting ability and (like Jessica Biel) she has the natural and very good looks to go with it.

Softness, quiescence, mellow and dull, this movie builds towards a breaking point.

Emanuel, a young woman whose mother died in child birth is still haunted by the absence. Longing, hurt inside, she forms a connection with a new next door neighbor named Linda (played by Jessica Biel).

Can't spoil the movie, but Linda and Emanuel are connected by loss.

We need one another, we love one another and sometimes, the bereavement even if we never got to truly know that lost one, is so strong it breaks our hearts, minds, souls, and future. We find ourselves surrounded by water, drowning and watching our love fall deeper and get carried away by the current.

I enjoyed this movie.

Kaya Scodelario carried the movie and Jessica Biel delivered in a believable way.

Written and Directed by Francesca Gregorini, I didn't have any complaints with the script and felt there was a great pace and rhythm to the movie, supported nicely with music.

Movies (unless documentaries, though even those are not entirely "real") are not supposed to be taken straight up, because they are what someone else thought of, so its supposed to be otherworldly. In this case the movie takes it to other places literally. Not always and only at special points in the story.

The German title also might indicate this to be a bit different than you'd expect (especially concerning our female lead): Linda's Child. But the Germans always like to explain the movies you're about to watch. The female lead, a young very beautiful actress has more than a couple of flaws and issues. Not a very sociable person (even though she has the charisma to pull that off, the looks as mentioned are there from the get go), but a person that might be able to help others who have issues of their own. Be it from the male or female gender.

This isn't perfect by a long shot, the points can be guessed, but they could've been made better. Still the performances (also Jessica Biel) are more than phenomenal. If you like weird thrillers with some extra touch, you are right on the spot with this one

Where does this movie head at? I think this question wasn't important, as the motivation of the director must have been most important. The film does excel when it comes to technical skills and standards. The whole settings and the filming location were really a good choice, and the story itself could have been more than an overused vessel. But the movie lacks as soon as I think about the main actors. Both Jessica Biel and Kaya Scodelario (what a wonderful name) wouldn't match. Until the end I was waiting for some kind of a surprising effect. Though most actors in the supporting roles were quite convincing, the movie left me with the impression of a void, a huge yawning void. May because it was too late for watching 'The Truth About Emanuel', or the unfinished, rough performance of both main actress' led only to a shallow mood. The truth is, there have been many more movies succeeding in what the director intended with this work. However, if you like Kaya Scodelario eyes', or want to see Jessica Biel failing horribly, I would definitely recommend this movie. But don't expect to see a provocative nor sensitive film, it was more like grotesque.