The Truth About Love (2004)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

John Hay

Writers:

Peter Bloore (story)
Peter Bloore (written by)

Release Date:

21 April 2005 (South Korea)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

How far would you go to test your man? How far would you go to keep him?

Plot:

As part of a drunken bet with her sister, a happily married woman sends an anonymous Valentine's card to her husband to see if he hides it...

Cast

Dougray Scott	...	Archie Gray
Jennifer Love Hewitt	...	Alice Holbrook
David Christian	...	Suppository Man
Freddie Waters	...	Fidgety Teenager
Jimi Mistry	...	Sam Holbrook
Kate Miles	...	Felicity
Tracy O'Flaherty	...	Promotions Woman
Tom Boyd	...	Henry (as Thomas S.W. Boyd)
Elise Rayner	...	TV News Reporter
Frances Valeydon-Pillay	...	Beauty Therapist
Karl Howman	...	Cliff Sharpe
Simon Webbe	...	Dan Harlow
Marc Danbury	...	Supporter #1
Kirris Riviere	...	Supporter #2 (as Kirris J. Riviere)
Jason Speake	...	Supporter #3

MPAA:

Rated R for language and sexual content.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Philippines:R-13 | USA:R | Australia:MA | Portugal:M/16 | UK:15 | Netherlands:AL | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

Bristol Central Library, College Green, Bristol, England, UK

Company:

Piccadilly Pictures

Goofs:

Errors in geography: Towards the end of the film, Alice runs from the dock where Archie's boat was kept to Temple Meads. When she arrives at Temple Meads, she is still running at the same speed and is hardly sweating or out of breath at all. The two locations are several miles apart. Not even the fittest athlete would have managed it without being somewhat out of breath.

Quotes:

Alice Holbrook: Anonymous never thinks. She does.

Low Expectations, Better Results

Watching TRUTH ABOUT LOVE (is this a double entendre about the star?) is like plugging in white noise or manufactured water sounds to help you sleep - you put it in the DVD slot because there is nothing else left on the store shelves and you are in need of distraction after a hectic day. And it works for that for that purpose: being a British romantic comedy it is a bit more.

The story is a rather simple one about a wife Alice (Jennifer Love Hewitt) married to an increasingly distant husband Sam (Jimi Mistry) who has put their love life on hold due to the burdens of his busy law practice. His partner Archie (Dougray Scott) is fond of both Sam and Alice, but has a longtime attraction to Alice that goes beyond friendship. Alice pals with her sister Felicity (Kate Miles), a free love advocate, who encourages Alice to have affairs. On Valentine's Day, after a drinking binge with her sister, Alice mails a card to Sam signed 'Anonymous' as a test to see if Sam responds, testing his fidelity. At the same time Archie mails a radish seed packet to Alice on which he has inscribed a suggestive love not. Both have ex post facto regrets. Sam in fact is spending time with a lover Katya (Branka Katic) and is indeed cheating on Alice. Alice arranges assignations with Sam via email and phone calls and plans to meet Sam in disguise as 'Anonymous' to test his fidelity. The entire cast of characters gets caught up in the silly charade and the ending proves that real love must be based on truth - and how that results in the various pairings is the surprise (of sorts) of the fluffy script.

British comedies work because of the quality of writing and the tight quality of acting. Perhaps had director John Hay elected to cast a British actress as Alice instead of pasting a phony accent on Jennifer Love Hewitt the result may have been improved. But in the end this story by Peter Bloore bounces between mildly humorous and pathetic in its messages. One terrible distraction is a musical score that is consistently so loud that it covers all the dialogue and is intrusive. There are some nice scenes of London and a few moments of passable humor, but in the end this little film is truly best utilized as background music/white noise. Grady Harp