Truth About Charlie, The

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A sophisticated thrill. And incandescent Thandie Newton is a worthy successor to Audrey Hepburn in 'Charade.'

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Charlie doesn't have a point, doesn't give a damn about giving a damn. It is what it is: a beautiful goof, a drunken supermodel in search of one more party before the sun comes up.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Dazzlingly nimble and light on its feet, this breezy but densely textured love letter to modern, multicultural Paris in the guise of a romantic suspenser returns its director to the vibrant vein of his pre-Oscar work in "Something Wild" and "Married to the Mob."

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The plot is essentially a backdrop, as it was in "Charade," for Paris, suspense, romance and star power -- If it is true that there will never be another Audrey Hepburn, and it is, I submit it is also true that there will never be another Thandie Newton.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Chalk this razzle-dazzle chase picture up as effective Friday-night entertainment, not the heart-stirring romantic thriller it might have been. That's the real truth about "Charlie."

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The closer you get to sorting out the truth, the less likely you are to believe it, let alone comprehend it. The latter half of this movie is as outlandish as a Mexican soap opera.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Viewers will be split between those who wonder about this silly, trumped-up story and those who already know and love the silliness for what it was. [4 November 2002, p. 110]

Newsweek David Ansen

It’s a movie for movie lovers -- playful, hip and light as a feather.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Though indisputably a thriller, Charlie abandons itself to little cinematic rhapsodies, self-reflexive asides, and montages of Paris locations cued to a soundtrack of cool French pop, all of which often seems more vital than the main order of business.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

As an experiment in mood, as a love song to Paris and to the French New Wave, as a fun, flirty little number, Charlie provides a giddy satisfaction.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Comes across as a fairly weak retooling.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Demme gets a lot of flavor and spice into his "Charade" remake, but he can't disguise that he's spiffing up leftovers that aren't so substantial or fresh.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

It's not a great film but it's pure pleasure.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Does briefly sizzle in the scenes between Newton and French actress Christine Boisson, as the bisexual French police commander assigned to the case.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Think of The Truth About Charlie as a Parisian getaway that happens to have a movie percolating in the background.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

With a multiracial cast, an international spy-caper flick with "Mission Impossible" and John Woo overtones, and a series of comic turns, fantasy sequences and sly humour, it should be a fresh delight. Unfortunately, it's not.

Slate David Edelstein

I wish it were as much fun as its prospectus. The truth is that The Truth About Charlie gets increasingly tiresome.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

You may be taken by the director's enormous enthusiasm, but the picture doesn't quite work.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

If Wahlberg in a beret is your idea of fun, don't let me get in your way.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

As utterly disastrous movies go, this one's really got something.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Neither the script nor the direction nor the acting has been able to make these characters into ones we want to invest ourselves in. The Truth About Charlie is one very busy film, but it's really not going anywhere.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The meltingly beautiful Newton gives a solid performance, but she and Wahlberg do not glide like Astaire and Rogers, to put it delicately.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

So the awful truth about The Truth About Charlie is that it needed two movie stars and got one.

San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel

A sometimes interesting remake that doesn't compare to the brilliant original.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Demme can't sustain the fizz, but seeing a real filmmaker try and fall short is still more fun than watching a hack hit the mark.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The trouble with The Truth About Charlie is that it really is after the truth about Charlie, a character we could hardly give a damn about. The only charade is the illusion that we might actually be entertained.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Newton may not be a great actor, either, but she's full of life and charm. She's the only thing holding this movie together at all.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Another charmless Hollywood thriller.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

It's nice that Demme reveres the Hollywood classic, the French cinema and the glamour of his actors. But nice is all The Truth About Charlie is -- a nice mess.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Where "Charade" unfolds in a fantasy Paris full of glamorous white people, Demme's film takes place in a gray tangle of streets teeming with multi-ethnic Parisians. Newton and Robbins mimic Hepburn and Matthau, while Wahlberg is the anti-Grant, lumpen and thuggish rather than beguilingly debonair.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Gave me a craving for something nouvelle, not a half-hearted Hollywood co-optation.

Time Richard Corliss

Donen got it gloriously right the first time. Why do it again? And why do it like this?

LA Weekly John Powers

The story itself falls to earth with a thud, not least because of a casting catastrophe. The boyish, goofily smiling Wahlberg is egregiously out of place as the kind of charming-ambiguous dreamboat you'd have to be Cary Grant to pull off.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The Truth About Charlie...is that this "Charade" remake is a lumpen bore.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

At once listless and overheated, giddy and utterly zipless, the current incarnation lacks not just the savoir-faire of its stylish predecessor but also the sex appeal.