La Vérité ou presque (2007) - film review

Anne is a television presenter based in Lyons.  She is married to Thomas, has a young son, and enjoys the occasional furtive tryst with her former husband Marc  She likes to think she is in control of her life.  All that is to change when she meets Vincent, a writer who is working on a biography of the jazz singer Pauline Anderton.  She doesn’t know that Vincent is gay, with a neurotically jealous boyfriend, nor that her husband is interested Caroline, Marc’s current wife.  Nothing is quite what it seems...

Despite its impressive cast and its earnest treatment of some serious themes, it is hard to warm to this comedy of manners, which feels rather like a tasty casserole that has been left in the oven for too long.  La Vérité ou presque is the third full-length film to be directed by Sam Karmann, who won an Oscar and Palme d’Or at Cannes for his short film Omnibus (1992).  As with Karmann’s previous two films – Kennedy et Moi (1999) and À la petite semaine (2003) – this latest offering suffers from being somewhat too considered and over-worked.  It lacks the lightness of touch it badly needs to engage its audience and provide some contrast between the lighter and darker moments.

© James Travers 2008

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