The Truth About Charlie sits at 3 stars over-all here on good ol' Epinions. Bah I say! 5 stars all the way, without reservation. Sometimes a movie is so fun that you just have to shout I love this movie!

Charlie has been murdered. His Widow, Regina, was about to divorce him. Upon his death she rapidly realizes she had no idea who he really was and thus begins the adventure to get some answers.. and 6 million bucks.

Seems Charlie was involved in some secretive operations and screwed a few folks out of quite a bit of money... they want it back. Regina becomes embroiled in quite the confusing mess! Nobody is who they seem or purport to be, and it's hard to know who to trust. All Regina wants is answers, but she gets way more than she bargained for.

Based on the story and 60s movie Charade written by Peter Stone and Marc Behm, The Truth About Charlie is an amazingly wild game of cat and mouse that will keep you guessing. There's lots of action and false avenues.

This is full of excellent players...
Mark Wahlberg .... Joshua Peters
Thandie Newton .... Regina Lambert
Christine Boisson .... Cmndt. Dominique
Tim Robbins .... Lewis Bartholomew
Joong-Hoon Park .... Il-Sang Lee
Ted Levine .... Emil Zatapec
Lisa Gay Hamilton .... Lola Jansco
Stephen Dillane .... Charlie
Simon Abkarian .... Lt. Dessalines

Now, I'm not what you'd normally call a Wahlberg fan, but Mark (Rock Star, Italian Job) does more than justice to his part. I was frankly amazed at his reach here. He, and everyone else involved, had an absolute blast with this and it shows in the most delightful ways. His chemistry with Thandie Newton (Gridlock'd, Interview with the Vampire) as the widow Regina is great. Hell.. the chemistry with everyone was great!

I won't go through the cast this time explaining who everyone was.. because nobody is what they seem. It's very convoluted but extremely engaging. To say who is who would be misleading, and that's all the hints you will get for this one!

Jonathan Demme is the Director and therefore mostly responsible for this great flick. Do you expect anything less than fantastic from the man who also gave us Silence of the Lambs? He gathered a great cast and let them loose to wreak havoc and the result was just an action-packed good time.

Rated PG-13 for some violence and sexual content/nudity. Yeah yeah.. I'd let any age watch this with me, but it will likely be above the heads of anyone below 13-ish. Kids vary, you be the judge.

The scenery is amazing! This was filmed in Saint Ouen, Martinique, and Paris in France. I adored the view of French life I got from this movie. The buildings, the streets, the Flea Market.. fantastic! A few odd camera tricks gave this a quirky edge that I positively adored. There is one where the camera is spinning during a foot chase that made me a tad dizzy but it quit short of becoming annoying.

I recommend this one without any reservation. I'll have to go back through and re-read the other reviews to try to figure out what they didn't like, because I loved it! Now I think I'll pop in the original.. great story!



Recommended: Yes