The New York Times by A.O. Scott
You may be taken by the director's enormous enthusiasm, but the picture doesn't quite work.
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Germany, United States · 2002
Rated PG-13 · 1h 44m
Director Jonathan Demme
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Thandiwe Newton, Tim Robbins, Christine Boisson
Genre Thriller
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A remake of the 1963 film Charade, The Truth About Charlie is a thriller about a woman suddenly thrown into a mystery beyond her comprehension. When she returns home from a vacation in Martinique, she finds her husband dead and all their money gone. With four men now pursuing her in search of her husband's fortune, she accepts help from a mysterious, handsome stranger.
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
You may be taken by the director's enormous enthusiasm, but the picture doesn't quite work.
I wish it were as much fun as its prospectus. The truth is that The Truth About Charlie gets increasingly tiresome.
Washington Post by 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.
Portland Oregonian by 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.
Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman
The Truth About Charlie...is that this "Charade" remake is a lumpen bore.
TV Guide Magazine by 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.
Baltimore Sun by Michael Sragow
A sophisticated thrill. And incandescent Thandie Newton is a worthy successor to Audrey Hepburn in 'Charade.'
Dallas Observer by 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.
Chicago Sun-Times by 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.
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."
It's not how you play the game. It's how the game plays you.
An ex-spy must pull out all the stops to save his daughter after she is kidnapped by human traffickers.