The Truth About Charlie
Release Date:
October 25, 2002
Jonathan Demme directs this remake of the 1963 feature Charade, starring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn and Walter Matthau. Mark Wahlberg, Thandie Newton and Tim Robbins have replaced this classic all-star cast, respectively.
While vacationing in Martinique, Regina Lambert (Newton) meets the mysterious Joshua Peters (Wahlberg). His charm brings up even more doubts in her mind as she contemplates ending her whirlwind marriage. When she returns to Paris, she finds that her apartment has been ransacked, her bank account emptied, and her husband murdered. The more Regina learns about the mystery, the more danger she is in. Even Joshua turns up to make the situation even more difficult.
Reviews of the original movie have always praised its wonderful cast and filmmaking style. Can this remake live up to its predecessor? We'll find out on the big screen soon enough. (Marty Doskins/BOP)
October 23, 2002
A crime caper. A comedy. A whirlwind romance. A thriller. Like the 1963 movie on which it is based, The Truth About Charlie hopes to combine all these genre elements to keep the audience enthralled, entertained and constantly on the edge of their seats as they try to guess what will happen next.
According to director Jonathan Demme, The Truth About Charlie is only loosely based on Charade, a very fondly-remembered classic film that starred Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. He used the original storyline for a jumping off point, but has apparently changed the relationships and personalities of the lead characters from the first film, turning the tale in a radically new direction.
Demme had his Beloved star Thandie Newton in mind when considering the possibility of a remake, and decided on Mark Wahlberg for the male lead after being impressed by his work in Boogie Nights and Three Kings. Though Wahlberg’s Joshua Peters is loosely based on Cary Grant’s original role, Demme took the character in a drastically different direction and actually refers to him as the “anti-Cary Grant.” This would become an issue later, as Wahlberg made what he refers to as a hurried misstatement while he was a guest on David Letterman’s late-night talk show. The actor claims that he was trying to hurry along to another clip from the film when he said that he was “playing Cary Grant,” a remark that angered Demme so much that he wrote Wahlberg a four-page letter in which he told him he could have hired any number of better actors for the part if he wanted a Cary Grant. On top of that controversy, Wahlberg has said that he wasn’t really a fan of the original film, which isn’t likely to sit well with diehard fans of the classic.
Still, the film looks stylish and intriguing, and the general movie-going public isn’t likely to recognize that The Truth About Charlie is connected with an earlier classic. The trailers set it apart, giving it a darker and more sinister tone, which should lead to lots of surprises and twists for audiences. More importantly, Newton has a nude scene. Any number of able-bodied men will flock to the film for that aspect alone.
Unfortunately, the marketing campaign has been rather slight, and the film is only slated for around 700 screens. That’s not a huge sign of confidence from the studio, which when combined with a general lack of audience awareness about the film’s debut, bodes very poorly indeed. (Kim Hollis/BOP)
Comparison films for The Truth About Charlie |
Title |
Date |
Opening |
Adjusted Opening |
Screens |
PSA |
Adj PSA |
Total BO |
Adjusted Total |
Mult |
| Payback |
2/5/99 | 21.22 |
25.28 |
2720 |
7801.00 |
8906.7 |
81.52 |
97.14 |
3.84 |
| House on Haunted Hill, The |
10/29/99 | 15.95 |
19.00 |
2710 |
5886.00 |
6720.2 |
40.86 |
48.69 |
2.56 |
| Psycho |
12/4/98 | 10.03 |
12.89 |
2477 |
4049.00 |
5007.3 |
21.51 |
27.65 |
2.14 |
|
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