The Truth About Love
The Truth About Love
R | 21 April 2005 (USA)
The Truth About Love Trailers

As part of a drunken bet with her sister Felicity, happily married Alice sends an anonymous Valentine's card to her husband Sam to see if he hides it. When he does, what was a prank leads to a series of events and revelations that may put her marriage at risk, and leaves her looking for answers.

Reviews
Memorergi good film but with many flaws
RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
michelle-957 I've seen better production quality on YouTube! I pity the actors, as the writing was terrible and the direction shocking, not sure how they could get the lines out - I really doubt any actor would have been able to salvage this movie no matter how good they were. The characters were not developed at all, and there was no real cohesion in the plot which just seemed to go nowhere much. It's a shame really, as the premise for the movie was good and with better production quality, direction and script it could have been a decent movie. It certainly was not a comedy, unless you laugh out loud at the dubbing - which was amateurish, even the English actors sounded weird.
Amy Adler Alice (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a quietly beautiful nurse, is married to Sam, a hotshot lawyer. His best friend, Archie (Dougray Scott) is deeply in love with Alice, too, although he settles for friendship. On the eve of Valentine's Day, however, Archie sends Alice an anonymous valentine and some radish seeds. Alice is intrigued but, she starts thinking. How would Sam react if he received a valentine from an unknown source? Would he tell her about it, as she did with him? On her sister's urging, Alice does send Sam a romantic greeting card. In her presence, she watches as Sam reads the card and promptly stuffs it in his briefcase, with no acknowledgement. Huh. Alice goes further and buys a new cellphone. She promptly calls Sam and leaves a message that she, a mystery lady, is interested in him. Will Sam call back? And, is Alice treading into deep romantic waters? This is an intriguing movie, no doubt about it. The principal actors are very good, with Hewitt giving a very interesting character study as the supposedly sedate Alice. The production values, costumes, and setting are more than acceptable. But, it is the jarring inquiring into fidelity and how far one should go to determine the faithfulness of your partner that is most striking here. There are some very adult themes and scenes in this film and any viewer with serious scruples will not want to take a chance on it. That said, this is ultimately a love story and fans of this genre are always hungry for a new addition to the repertoire. For these folks, try this one as an evening's entertainment and wait for the more typical romcoms that are sure to be churned out every year for a less controversial view.
loui661 To the gentleman who commented above....if he watched the film thoroughly he would notice that the scenes were of BRISTOL NOT London. Bristol is a city of half a million people in the west of england.Can you imagine the uproar if a movie was filmed in Atlanta GA and Simonne said ARE'NT those are nice scenes of new york. Therefore don't associate all British films being shot in London you would be pleasantly surprised to find lots from around the country. great film by the way....just hurts when most Americans associate all English live in London and its the UK'S only city. From a Bristolian who is proud to have had a film made here.
gradyharp Watching TRUTH ABOUT LOVE (is this a double entendre about the star?) is like plugging in white noise or manufactured water sounds to help you sleep - you put it in the DVD slot because there is nothing else left on the store shelves and you are in need of distraction after a hectic day. And it works for that for that purpose: being a British romantic comedy it is a bit more.The story is a rather simple one about a wife Alice (Jennifer Love Hewitt) married to an increasingly distant husband Sam (Jimi Mistry) who has put their love life on hold due to the burdens of his busy law practice. His partner Archie (Dougray Scott) is fond of both Sam and Alice, but has a longtime attraction to Alice that goes beyond friendship. Alice pals with her sister Felicity (Kate Miles), a free love advocate, who encourages Alice to have affairs. On Valentine's Day, after a drinking binge with her sister, Alice mails a card to Sam signed 'Anonymous' as a test to see if Sam responds, testing his fidelity. At the same time Archie mails a radish seed packet to Alice on which he has inscribed a suggestive love not. Both have ex post facto regrets. Sam in fact is spending time with a lover Katya (Branka Katic) and is indeed cheating on Alice. Alice arranges assignations with Sam via email and phone calls and plans to meet Sam in disguise as 'Anonymous' to test his fidelity. The entire cast of characters gets caught up in the silly charade and the ending proves that real love must be based on truth - and how that results in the various pairings is the surprise (of sorts) of the fluffy script.British comedies work because of the quality of writing and the tight quality of acting. Perhaps had director John Hay elected to cast a British actress as Alice instead of pasting a phony accent on Jennifer Love Hewitt the result may have been improved. But in the end this story by Peter Bloore bounces between mildly humorous and pathetic in its messages. One terrible distraction is a musical score that is consistently so loud that it covers all the dialogue and is intrusive. There are some nice scenes of London and a few moments of passable humor, but in the end this little film is truly best utilized as background music/white noise. Grady Harp