True Things

Ruth Wilson gives a superb performance as a woman in her late thirties whose life is going nowhere. Lacking a partner, or even real friends, alienating her parents, she is lonely and unfulfilled.

She has a chance encounter with a strange but charismatic man and becomes obsessed with him. He alternately spends time with her and ignores her. I won't go into detail as it will spoil the way things unfold, but her neediness and sense of isolation are cleverly portrayed.

The rapid cuts, out-of focus shots and tuneless music get a bit irritating at times - presumably they are meant to show her confused state of mind.

At the end she achieves some kind of clarity about her life, shown by the camera-work becoming steady and focussed.

Powerful and haunting - well worth watching.

Ruth Wilson plays an isolated single woman with low self-esteem who hooks up with a 'bad boy' and that's the whole story. It plays out in slow, miserable, unsurprising ways. Plot development? Never heard of it. This a deeply uninteresting look at boring characters going nowhere. Think Mike Leigh, but without composition, character or compassion.

The trouble is, Ruth Wilson is a good actress and manages to make this dishwater script seem more engaging than it really is, so well done Ruth. Tom Burke is fine, but his character suffers the same problem - he's bland, badly written (if written at all) and has all the complexity of a child's stick drawing.

It's self-indulgent, patience-testing guff which leaves its actors to do all the work but, ultimately, they don't have enough work to do.

Ever been in a relationship that felt more like an intoxicating addiction? That's the situation for Katie, a down on her luck benefits worker in a UK seaside town.

Ruth Wilson is fantastic as Katie. Every movement and smile conveys the desperate neediness of someone lacking self love and connection. Tom Burke is a solid love rat, and their chemistry bubbles throughout the film.

There are some nice handheld shots, but nothing too ambitious. Worth watching, nothing to write home about.

This film probably won't change the world. It doesn't contain life-altering wisdom or beautiful moments of insight. It is a very restrained, very subtle piece, essentially a two-handed stage play, with a pair of talented actors delivering understated performances.

This is a double-edged sword. The down-to-earth realism means that the story drifts quietly along, as do the characters, before just kind of ending. This allows for some real moments of introspection, pause, and stillness (true things, one might say), but unfortunately it does leave a slightly pedestrian and forgettable impression. But maybe that isn't a bad thing for these types of films? I'd be interested to come back in a few years and see whether the impression has changed at all.

I found the psychodrama, TRUE THINGS (2021), to be an interesting movie. It's about a young woman named Kate (Ruth Wilson) who lives on the outskirts of society. She is content with her life until she meets a man named Blonde (Tom Burke) who comes into her life and starts to change everything.

Kate is a quiet and shy person, but she is also very curious and desperate for connection. She starts to follow Blonde around and quickly becomes infatuated with him. She starts to neglect her own life in favour of spending time with him. However, she soon realizes that he is not the man she thought he was.

The movie is well-acted, and the story is intriguing. However, it is slow-paced and may not be for everyone. The characters are developed well, and the themes of isolation and obsession are explored in depth.

Overall, I thought TRUE THINGS was a good movie. It is different from most Hollywood films, and it is worth watching.