We could spend hours bemoaning the tragedy of bad films made by talented people, but we’d be doing it just to hear ourselves talk.
It doesn’t matter that “The Truth About Charlie” has fine source material (it’s a remake of the 1963 Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn film “Charade”). It’s irrelevant that the director, Jonathan Demme, also helmed the superlative “Philadelphia” and “The Silence of the Lambs.” The talents of stars Thandie Newton and Mark Wahlberg don’t matter, nor does Demme’s casually cool visual style, nor the way-hip Euro-pop musical score, nor the entertaining cameo by French singing legend Charles Aznavour.
What matters is that, regardless of the skill and potential went into it, “The Truth About Charlie” is flat, pointless and unexciting.
Set in Paris, it is a mystery-thriller about a woman (Newton) pursued by bad guys who believe she has access to $6 million her dead husband stole from a failed U.S. military action in Yugoslavia. Wahlberg plays the gallant American who tries to help her … or does he??????
What made for a cracking fine tale of espionage and double crosses in 1963 seems downright quaint now. It’s not that the twists are predictable; it’s that the audience doesn’t care.
D (1 hr., 42 min.; )
