The Truth About Emanuel Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Truth About Emanuel Blu-ray Movie Review

Is something fishy going on?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 14, 2014

English majors the world over have decimated countless forests with stacks of paper devoted to analysis of poems, long tracts peeking into every jot and tittle of symbolism, analogy, and other tricks of the poetic trade. But when you get right down to it, prose simply can’t adequately describe all that a poem can do, or mean. The irony of course is that poems utilize language to offer an apprehension of reality which is often either pre- or post-verbal. And in a very real way, The Truth About Emanuel (originally titled Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes) is a cinematic poem. Not only does it offer a magical realist ambience, the very genre of prose that probably most closely approximates the general tenor of poetry, it also contains one major plot “twist” that probably shouldn’t be discussed in any spoiler free review. That leaves a potentially gaping hole at the center of any discussion about the film, but there are several salient elements which can be mentioned. Emanuel (Kaya Scodelario) is a distraught teenager just on the cusp of adulthood from whose viewpoint the film is told, and who begins The Truth About Emanuel with a shocking narrative confession where she admits to having killed her mother. That particular truth turns out to be a bit more—well, prosaic than Emanuel’s shocking statement might indicate. It turns out that, from Emanuel’s perspective anyway, the emergency C-section that delivered Emanuel into the world almost eighteen years ago was what ended up killing her mother, though a later revelation by Emanuel’s father, Dennis (Alfred Molina), of course confirms that that is really not the entire story. Emanuel, however, is wracked with survivor’s guilt, convinced that she should have perished rather than the mother she never knew. She has also borne the lifelong weight that her birthday is also the anniversary of her mother’s death, and as is also revealed in the film, as a result she has resolutely refused to ever visit her mother’s grave. Instead, Emanuel wends her way through life with a snarky, defensive attitude that only partially masks the roiling emotions swirling through her psyche.

Emanuel’s life is split between a comfortable though emotionally distant home life, where Dennis has taken a seemingly caring but shallow new wife named Janice (Frances O’Connor) and a long train ride to a never seen job, a journey which despite its crowded ambience seems to almost be a refuge for the young woman, especially after she makes eye contact with a young man named Claude (Aneurin Barnard). She impetuously tells her father and stepmother that Claude is her boyfriend one night over one of the impossibly gourmand dinners that Janice prepares for the family each evening. Meanwhile, Emanuel (the male spelling of her name is not an “error”, for you etymologists—it’s explained in the film) spies a new neighbor moving in, in a scene that weirdly harkens back to horror outings like Fright Night. Linda (Jessica Biel), the new neighbor, is not a vampire, however, but a new mother who somehow reminds Emanuel of her own mother. The girl’s interest is piqued.

When Janice mentions that Linda is looking for a babysitter for her newborn daughter Chloe, Emanuel rather uncharacteristically enthusiastically (well, what passes for enthusiasm with Emanuel) volunteers. It’s at this point that any direct discussion of some of The Truth About Emanuel’s plot conceits gets rather tricky. Suffice it to say that Linda is in her own way just as wounded a soul as Emanuel is, and a patently shocking revelation (one that might come out of a horror film, in fact) soon sucks Emanuel into a world of subterfuge and delusion. What therefore begins as a fairly rote if enjoyable angst filled teenage drama morphs into something decidedly more surreal, as evidenced by a recurring motif where Emanuel envisions her own drowning.

The Truth About Emanuel is the brainchild of Francesca Gregorini, who comes off as an obviously bright but still somewhat unformed talent in the brief Tribeca Film Festival first person featurette which accompanies the film on this Blu-ray (she needs to stop dropping "y'know" repeatedly into every sentence). Gregorini’s writing is often sharp and at times quite funny (there’s a very amusing interchange at one of the dinners where Emanuel waxes rhapsodic about Precious Memories figurines). But her concept here is overly labored and frankly probably too weird to ever deliver the emotional jolt which is obviously her intent. There’s certainly a deep, involving film to be made about loss and how various people respond to it, but The Truth About Emanuel is too precious in its treatment of this ripe subject matter to completely connect with audiences, especially a younger, jaded audience which would be Gregorini’s generational demographic.

What helps to elevate the film is the honesty of the performances. Relative newcomer Kaya Scodelario is pitch perfect as Emanuel, capturing both the prickly exterior and the gelatin like interior of this fragile character (Gregorini reveals in her interview that the role was actually written for Rooney Mara, whom Gregorini has evidently known for years). The real surprise here may well be Jessica Biel, however. Biel has frequently been pigeonholed as a gorgeous but vapid star who typically essays one dimensional glamour girl roles. Here, however, she’s called upon to offer a decidedly more complex characterization of a mentally unbalanced woman and she does amazingly fine work. Molina and O’Connor are expectedly fine in somewhat underwritten roles, and Barnard is sweet in what is definitely an underwritten role.

There’s little doubt that Gregorini is a talent to keep an eye on. She frames the film exceedingly well, and handles a couple of CGI infested hallucinatory sequences with aplomb. But Gregorini needs to realize that a high concept premise like this perhaps calls for a less naturalistic presentation. Magical realism exists in a netherworld that is often awfully hard to present faithfully on screen, and in fact a precious few filmmakers have ever been able to adequately represent the genre’s demands effectively (Guillermo del Toro comes to mind). The Truth About Emanuel offers a sometimes disturbing view of two females on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but like many who suffer from neuroses, it tends to spend too much time in its head without venturing more bravely into matters of the heart, where this story really should reside.

The Truth About Emanuel Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Truth About Emanuel is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This digitally shot film looks just a tad on the soft side some of the time, especially in midrange shots (see screencaptures 5 and and 8 for examples). On the other hand, Gregorini and her cinematographer Polly Morgan often opt for extreme close-ups, which typically offer excellent sharpness, clarity and fine detail (see screenshots 1 and 6 for examples). Colors are generally nicely saturated and accurate looking. The film's CGI is actually rather good, considering what was evidently a very small budget (you can see one example in screenshot 4). Contrast is occasionally dialed just a bit low, leading to a slightly murky ambience in some nighttime sequences. On the whole, though, this high definition presentation is enjoyable and suffers from no serious artifacts.

The Truth About Emanuel Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Though it's quite subtle at times, The Truth About Emanuel's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is often quite immersive, especially with its use of lapping wave and water sounds, which regularly spill (sorry) through the surrounds (the film in fact opens with these sounds before any images are presented). Dialogue is cleanly presented and the film's use of both opera and pop music also offers some slight but noticeable surround activity. Fidelity is excellent, though dynamic range is fairly negligible throughout the film.

The Truth About Emanuel Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with the Director, Francesca Gregorini (1080p; 4:02). She's like, y'know, really excited, y'know, about her, like, film.


• Outtakes (1080p; 00:46)


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; approximately 4:00)


• Trailer (1080p; 2:11)

The Truth About Emanuel Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Truth About Emanuel has a lot of interesting elements, but like its heroine (at least in her dream states), it's often adrift in murky waters. The film has one truly shocking development which Gregorini handles decently enough (some may think they've actually guessed this twist, but Gregorini offers some nice redirection until she finally reveals what's going on). But The Truth About Emanuel struggles to actually find an appropriate emotional tone to adequately convey the loss that is being depicted. Still, those who are interested in catching an obviously promising young filmmaker at the beginning of her career may well find enough here to warrant a purchase, especially since the performances are so strong. The technical merits are generally quite good here, and for adventurous Art House types, The Truth About Emanuel comes Recommended.