True Things, 2021.
Directed by Harry Wootliff.
Starring Ruth Wilson, Tom Burke, Hayley Squires, Elizabeth Rider and Frank McCusker.
SYNOPSIS:
A JobCentre worker strikes up a romantic relationship with a mysterious ex-convict who visits her office.
Harry Wootliff delivered one of the absolute gems of the London Film Festival back in 2018, when her debut feature Only You premiered at the event. A complex and nuanced love story, it took a mature perspective on a genre which often simply leans into ancient, unrealistic tropes. Wootliff’s second feature, True Things, also puts a difficult and less than ideal relationship at its centre and, again, is anchored by a pair of top-drawer central performances.
Kate (Ruth Wilson) works as an advisor at the Job Centre and envies the life of her family woman colleague Alison (Hayley Squires). She is visited one day by a new client in bleach-blonde mystery man (Tom Burke), who has just been released from prison after “a run-in with an articulated lorry and a lamp post”. By the end of that day, they’re having sex in a multi-storey car park and they soon embark on a strange relationship characterised by last-minute plans, bizarre sexual encounters and a sense of unpredictability that is as damaging as it is exciting.
True Things is about the gap between fantasy and reality. This is characterised clearly by the opening scene, which depicts Kate receiving oral sex to the sound of ocean waves and bathed in an ethereal summer glow. It then cuts to her alone in her flat preparing toast while wearing a decidedly unglamorous long t-shirt. This contrast sits at the core of the movie, with Kate battling her own desire to pursue this risky, sexy attraction or run a mile in the other direction in search of stability.
Wilson does stellar work as the thoroughly conflicted protagonist. She covets the lives of the seemingly perfect Instagram couples who post “true things” about each other in captions, even though those supposed truths are inevitably white-washed into a cartoon of idealism. She oscillates wildly between a desire for romance in its most conventional sense and the fact she is drawn to no-strings sex and a relationship built on pure animal magnetism. That magnetism is embodied with crass brilliance by Burke, who couldn’t be further from his buttoned-up character in The Souvenir. He’s a caricature of masculine performance, with his absurd hair and a leather jacket that screams how much he wants to be James Dean.
But at times, True Things disappears in the midst of its own ambiguity. These are two characters who have no idea how to communicate with each other, but the film seems unwilling to bridge that gap for the benefit of the audience. There’s something of a trudge to the way the movie unfolds, and it can often lack energy when the crackling intensity between Wilson and Burke isn’t on screen. Despite the obvious wrongness of the relationship, the chemistry between the leads is so palpable that you almost root for them. It’s a triumph of casting above all else.
Wootliff has delivered another nuanced take on love and relationships with True Things, albeit one which is a little foggier and less punchy than Only You. Despite the strength of the two performances, there’s a coldness and detachment to the movie which occasionally leads the audience down a meandering garden path without a potent and clear destination.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Tom Beasley is a freelance film journalist and wrestling fan. Follow him on Twitter via @TomJBeasley for movie opinions, wrestling stuff and puns.
