 Critics have generally reached the identical conclusion about Jonathan Demme's The Truth About Charlie -- that people would be better off renting the 1963 original, Charade, which starred Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, than shelling out big bucks to see this remake starring Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton. "What we get is not the truth about anything except the perils of remakes," comments John Anderson in Newsday. Comments Jami Bernard in the New York Daily News: "Comparisons are sadly inevitable. Mark Wahlberg is no Cary Grant, even if he has better abs. When Thandie Newton ... hands Wahlberg that famous line, 'You know what's wrong with you? Absolutely nothing!,' you may feel an obligation to speak up." Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post recalls another line in the original movie in which Audrey Hepburn places her finger on the famous dimple of Cary Grant's chin and asks, "How do you shave in there?" Comments Hornaday: "Wahlberg ... not only doesn't have a dimple in his chin, he doesn't even look old enough to shave." Nevertheless, several reviewers do give the film some respectable reviews. Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer remarks: "Here is a love story for movie lovers." Liam Lacey in the Toronto Globe and Mail calls it "a substantial reconsideration of the original." Peter Howell in the Toronto Star finds it "an uneven but engaging remake." And Mark Caro in the Chicago Tribune gives it the ultimate in mixed reviews, writing "Remaking Charade could be seen as unimaginative or gutsy, foolhardy or noble, and you could apply all four adjectives to Jonathan Demme's The Truth About Charlie." |
