Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47117 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-01-08
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 115 minutes

Video Description
THE TRUTH is a murder mystery for the " Me Generation". Seven strangers go to a remote retreat for a week of soul searching. Encouraged to tell the truth at all times by their guru Donna Shuck, they venture on a spiritual journey of personal growth, taking in jealousy, hatred, sex, perversion and a little murder along the way.

Synopsis
What happens when seven strangers at a remote retreat are instructed to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth at all times? Soul searching, personal growth, hatred, sex, perversion, and a little murder mystery.

Daily Record
"Smart, funny and ambitious." *****

Customer Reviews

Truth to tell, it's almost unwatchable
Trying to watch no-budget Britflick The Truth was not a happy experience. There's low budget film-making, and there's extracting the urine. Technically at least, this is extracting the urine. The film itself isn't altogether bad, though far from successful: Elaine Cassidy's invalid finds herself at an 'adventures in truth' seminar run in the Scottish countryside by Elizabeth McGovern's self-satisfied dictatorial New Ager with an endless supply of irrelevant Zen sayings.

It starts off promisingly enough before it becomes apparent that the script is as vague as the course, moving from satire to ill-fitting murder-not-quite-mystery (thrown away with a quick confession and no interest in motive) before moving to a third act that veers from briefly threatening to go all Wicker Man as the other course members might be trying to kill Cassidy to keep their secret before possibly reaching some vague point about how something positive can come from negative experiences and self-deceiving charlatans. Or something like that. I'm not really sure, and I don't think the writers or director are either.

Adding to the difficulty is that this no-budget feature, despite its professional cast, seems to have been made by people who have been to one of those weekend film-making courses and bought into the digital video myth lock, stock and low resolution barrel without knowing how to actually use the tools. But rather than the following being a rant against the quality of video over film (there are fairly few giveaways of how the film was originated), the problem is that this actually boasts even worse video photography than Timbo Hines' legendarily inept amateur video version of War of the Worlds. This has the very lowest technical standards I have ever seen in anything ever shown on a cinema screen.

Aside from poor sound recording that renders key passages almost inaudible, the film is shot entirely on video with natural light. That means that at no time has the director of photography used any artificial lights. Now, some great films have been shot in natural light, but you need a Raoul Coutard or a John Alcott to really pull it off: you also need to have a location with better sources of light and weather that doesn't change the light levels every 30 seconds. Not to mention a script where 35% of the action doesn't take place in a wood or dark corridors in the middle of the night. Whole scenes are rendered almost invisible, a dark mess where you can just about pick out a few details. Worse, the cameraman has no idea how to light women (particularly Elizabeth McGovern and Elaine Cassidy), with the result that characters even seem to look different from shot to shot in the same scene.

Despite a confused script in desperate need of focus, momentum and a decent script editor and a feeling that it doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up, the performances (with the exception of Rachel Stirling and one bit player) are very good, Cassidy and McGovern particularly - it's just a shame you can barely see them. There are even a couple of good jokes. But technically I was just amazed anyone thought this was in any way acceptable. Surely they must have noticed when they played the thing back on the set?

There's a zen saying...
There's something inherently creepy about new-age courses and seminars, where people turn to strangers spouting half-baked "cosmic" ideas in their search for something to make life a little easier, under the guise of "enlightenment". Thankfully, George Milton and Mark Tilton have noticed this, and made a film about it.

The Truth is a heart-felt black comedy in which, for six people, a terrible event leads to a horrific sham of self-fulfilment through which they can find happiness. The film tries to sell itself (on the DVD box, anyway) as a murder-mystery, but actually the "mystery" here is almost entirely irrelevant. Despite one course member's "confession", we're left unsure about the killer's true identity. Ultimately, it doesn't seem important, as through their actions, all course members present share the blame. Apart, that is, from the film's wheelchair-bound hero, Candy (played brilliantly by Elaine Cassidy).

The film is shot in an interestingly narrative-driven way, with shots increasingly revealing Candy's separation from the rest of the group. The characters all have different motives - from being unbelievably shallow, to being genuinely troubled - but in the end, for their own sanity, they all (apart, again, from Candy) band together. The cast is absolutely spot-on. Elizabeth McGovern in particular is wonderful as the film's self-centred new-age guru.

On an interesting side-note, a few comments on the packaging of this DVD, referring to the "Me Generation" and Celebrity Big Brother, seem to hint strongly towards supporting part of the film's message - namely that society has, in the process of searching for the quick fix, for instant gratification, begun to erode at its own soul, and in doing so is producing the kind of desperate, shallow people we see here. Now, that can't possibly be the truth...

Darkly funny, clever plot. Engaging characters and that's the DOUBLE TRUTH, Ruth.
This wonderful film is a dark comedy, thriller, whodunnit about a weekend group-counselling retreat in a remote mansion in Scotland.
The facilitator is a hilariously un-P.C.(un-Politically Correct as well as un-Person Centred) American new age
hippy now turned middle aged and middle class, who has retained her precious spiritual values, but seems to get everything wrong leading to disastrous and frightening consequences. I loved the characters of the group because they are intriguingly messed up and carry such diverse "baggage". As in all self-discovery groups, the actions of each individual has a knock-on 'ripple in the pond' effect to all the others and I found myself cringing and laughing out loud as the engaginly, clever plot unfolded. Which way would it go next? Names or similarity to any real people are purely coincidental - but I wonder how many of us will recognise elements of the group members in our friends, family or (more worryingly) ourselves.