one of Catherine Deneuve's greatest performance, with Kore-eda transforming the magisterial persona she frequently supplies to other directors into something more complex, tragic and yet defiant. She deserves awards for it. And so does the film
it's a big surprise: a witty, meta dramedy about fiction and fact and self-mythologizing; a portrait of a wonderfully impossible woman; and a vehicle for a stellar late-career performance from Catherine Deneuve
from first shot to last, it's a film of high wit and confidence and verve, an astonishingly fluid and accomplished act of boundary-leaping; Catherine Deneuve gives a magnificent performance: grand, subtle, lacerating and fearless
a well-appointed family melodrama; Hirokazu Kore-eda's tale is warm and soothing, verging on over-cosy. But it contains a hard core of emotional truth, like the pea beneath the mattress that woke up the princess
a charming love letter to Catherine Deneuve; it has the playful lightness of touch, the wit and warmth that are an essential part of the Hirokazu Kore-eda signature; it's also an affectionate ode to French cinema itself
"The Truth" lacks the tear-jerking dramatic oomph that swells beneath so many of Kore-eda's best films, but it gingerly eases forward with the kind of sensitivity and emotional intelligence that only a master storyteller can bring to the table
"The Truth" is most assuredly a Hirokazu Kore-eda film, with his observations of human behaviour as razor-sharp as ever. There's a gentle strain of comedy too, with Ethan Hawke on particularly charming form
by Kevin Maher [The Times (UK) ]
by Xan Brooks [The Guardian ]
by James Mottram [South China Morning Post ]
