There are some movies that start badly, but make me hope for something worth staying for. Sometimes I am rewarded, sometimes I end up just satisfied enough and sometimes I just laugh at the train wreck that is unfolding before me...
...and sometimes, I get to the 30 minute mark and realize that the movie was always dead on arrival, and that there really isn't even a shred of hope.
Welcome to "The Whole Truth".
The "You're lucky I'm not Korean" line (spoken to a dog...oh, I get it!) was one of many painful and embarrassingly bad attempts at humor. I mean without exaggeration that the writing is truly cringe-worthy. Ever watch amateur comedians flop on stage and feel embarrassed for them? Yeah...it's that bad.
I heard a few quiet (and possibly just nervous/embarrassed) giggles in the first half hour. For a movie that promised "rapid-fire" laughs, there was a painful amount of silence in the theatre.
Additionally, the soundtrack was right out of a sitcom pilot that never got picked up for a first season, the acting was forced and brutally unfunny, and the general feel of the movie was that of a decent concept given terribly amateur treatment.
Oddly, I read a comment about a test screening that went really well. The audience at the (sold out!) Seattle Int'l Film Festival screening would probably beg to differ, and the reviews on the SIFF site are very telling.
I would have been very curious to see the Q&A session after the movie. I can't help but wonder if anything of interest was said. Did the filmmakers receive any honest feedback? I've heard that Sundance audiences have actually booed and hissed at selected screenings...I've never seen that happen here.
Then again, I had to leave at the 30 minute mark. I couldn't take it anymore.
