'UnTrue' (2020)

Genre: Mystery Suspense Drama

‘UnTrue’ sets a grayer standard in both film and plot making

By Joey Ting

The film ‘UnTrue’ (2020), produced by The Idea First Company and released through Viva, sets a grayer standard in both film and plot making which an ordinary Filipino audience member would not really appreciate much of the film if not for the celebrity cast Xian Lim and Christine Reyes.

The film making style of famed ‘Kita Kita’ (2017) director Sigrid Andrea Bernardo is usually to say the least temperamental and moody, perhaps depending on her aesthetic mood of love and despair on specific points in her life and times.

In the case of my favorite ‘Ang Huling Cha Cha ni Anita’ (2013) where flashback and flashforward styles stem from the known filmic techniques of William Wyler’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ (1939), Orson Welles’s ‘Citizen Kane’ (1941), Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Rashomon’ (1950) and Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994) and ‘Kill Bill (2003 and 2004 sequels) among many other unconventional cinematic spectacles, the character of a 12-year old Anita falls in love with an older woman disposing of her mysterious looks, charm and appeal that would eventually carve into a more vivid cinematic styles of expressionism, surrealism and the other tangible art movements in Europe during the advent of the world wars. Director Bernardo has displayed her knowledge and skills in film making through her theatrical and media background for sure and her frequent travels in other parts of the world.

In some of the scenes in the film, actors Xian Lim (plays the character of Joachim) and Christine Reyes (portrays Mara) as set in the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe of the country Georgia, it only backdrops Georgia as an environmental setting but failed to relevantly intersperse with the human-ness of the characters. At some points in the film, it disengages with no intentions and eventually leads up to the idleness of the viewing audiences. There were no doubts about the acting skills of the two main actors but the film excessively diminishes the aesthetics of the intentional expressionism in the film, a grotesque cinematic interpretation of externalized behaviors of these characters as dictated by its physical environment. Thus, setting a gray-scaled standard in film making. However, the expressionist styles have been very effective for the plot it possesses.     

In terms of plot making, ‘Untrue’ is of the same plane and vision as it provides the spectrum of ‘what ifs’ theory in motion pictures. Tom Twyker’s German thriller ‘Run Lola Run’ (1998) and Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese expressionist film ‘Rashomon’ (1950) version, have been the reflexive nuances of the film. Both of these two films have acquired international recognitions and awards due to the innovations made in world cinema. Director Bernardo has that quality if only for her definitive plot styles which usually her storytelling device. The course of her plot movements is deconstructed and bent with intentions, not of natural ways but of seeing and riding with her asymmetrical perspectives. The plot, as it thickens, provides actions of different versions. Hence, a repetition of scenes, dialogues spoken by the two characters. The Joachim character could have been done interestingly by another actor. Lim has his own share of greatness in the film but most of the time without its sincerity. Reyes could have been clearer in her subtlety of expressive acting. Physicalizing anger and forging mental breakdown must be from within and not the surface one since the director implies beautifully the film’s sculpture. Len Calvo (music), Boy Yniguez (cinematography), Maolen Fadul (production design) have been very helpful in realizing the director’s vision. Editing though could have been more experimental and unpredictable. The plot uncovers in the end the intertwined stories retold in like a police blotter’s report as well as the psychiatrist’s sessions. Also, the dark past stories have been excessively melo-dramatized bringing down many of the scenes to idle.  

There are high moments of the film and most of which are the quietest. Scenes have been approached so loudly and literal, putting the delineation between clear black and white and smoky gray areas in the film. The film’s sensibility is not meant for the Filipino mass. Great luck to the rest of the cast and crew of the film’s international release and in competition with the various film festivals abroad. I hope Director Bernardo can bring home something we can all be proud of.