For those of us who didn’t get to travel to Sundance back in January (or a handful of festivals since) it’s been a long year waiting to get a look at Francesca Gregorini’s psychological thriller The Truth About Emanuel, which changed its name from the less marketable Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes. Barely anything has been said about the film since its first trailer was released over the summer, but now iTunes Movie Trailers has dropped a brand spanking new and more accessible trailer for the film, along with a couple of release dates. I’m somehow even more interested in this flick, which is odd since these trailers seemingly give away quite a bit of the movie. Perhaps it’s just enough, though.
The film will hit theaters on January 10, 2014, almost an entire year after its festival premiere. But seeing as how that will probably be a limited release, those of us in smaller markets are lucky in that the film will hit iTunes and other VOD platforms on November 28th. You can watch it while eating Thanksgiving leftovers on the couch.
For The Truth About Emanuel, Kaya Scodelario (Skins and The Maze Runner) plays the titular character, a teenager whose mother died during childbirth, leaving Emanuel to live a life with a gaping hole where a mother would be. Her stepmother Janice (Frances O’Connor) doesn’t do it for her, to the dismay of her father Dennis (Alfred Molina). So it is perhaps with too much zealousness that she accepts a babysitting position for a new neighbor, Linda (Jessica Biel), who bears a striking resemblance to Emanuel’s mother. As the two get closer, bonding over Linda's baby, there are some apparent role reversals, and their relationship takes a twisted turn into Uncomfortableville.
More so than the original trailer, this one plays out as a standard indie drama where women are dealing with women issues, at least until after the mid-point, when the soundtrack switches from melancholy to suspenseful, and every moment shows is dripping with off-centered obsessiveness. I dare not make any guesses as to what secrets Linda is hiding, lest disappointment become inevitable. Strange that this trailer barely pays any attention to Claude (Aneurin Barnard), the young male Emanuel fancies, since he seemed like an integral part of the imbalance beforehand.
Did any of you guys get a chance to see this one? Will my hopes and dreams be dashed? Or will this be the first time I really and truly enjoy watching Jessica Biel in a movie? Relive the weirdness of the first trailer as you think it over.
