User Reviews

The bitter and introspective seventeen year-old Emanuel (Kaya Scodelario) is a troubled girl that lost her mother giving birth to her and she feels guilty for her loss. She lives with her father Dennis (Alfred Molina) and her estranged stepmother Janice (Frances O'Connor) in a house in the suburb. Emanuel has not gone to college and works in a drugstore with her colleague Arthur (Jimmi Simpson). She uses to flirt with the teenager Claude (Aneurin Barnard) in the train she uses to go to her job.

When her next door neighbor Linda (Jessica Biel) offers Emanuel to be the babysitter of her newborn Chloe, Emanuel accepts the job offer but she does not see the baby that is sleeping. But Emanuel and Linda feel connected to each other and Emanuel visits Linda in her leisure time to help her with Chloe. When Emanuel finally sees Chloe, she realizes that her new friend is living a great illusion but she keeps her secret. When Linda dates Arthur, the touching truth about her is disclosed.

"The Truth About Emanuel" is a beautiful movie with a sensitive and touching story of loss and friendship. Emanuel and Linda are troubled women bonded by their losses. The beginning of the story is ambiguous and the viewer is never sure whether what Emanuel is seeing is her insane perception or reality until the moment that her stepmother visits Linda. I believe the water is a metaphor with the amniotic fluid that connects Emanuel and Linda and rebirth, but I did not understand the meaning of fishes. The performances are great and despite the bad reviews, the viewer may like it like I did. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Grande Ilusão" ("The Great Illusion")

Well that was a lot deeper than I expected it to be, but most Jessica Biel movies are. So the question that you are asked is: What do you owe to someone who dies so that you can live? How do you make payments? They seem to say that the answer is: When you feel like you are so deep under water that you just cant breathe, then you need to let go, and trust that the currents will carry you to where you are supposed to be. I guess. This movie is creepy, but not scary.(Take it from someone who's first real memory is like the awakening scene in this movie) There has been a lot of loss, and these characters are trying to fill the emptiness. You will not know who are the bad people in this movie, and it is to the credit of the actors that you will side with the young Emanuel from the start, and everyone will seem suspicious. If you like really long drawn out dramatic movies that never seem to get anywhere fast, but that finally pay out fully, and with extra butter. Then you will Enjoy this movie a lot. If you would rather remove your own eyes than watch a bunch of women sitting around talking(not what this is, just what it represents), then miss this one.

More a surreal allegory than a realistic narrative, 'The Truth about Emanuel' portrays how two women deal with loss. One of them is Emanuel, an abrasive seventeen-year-old whose mother had died at her birth, who becomes increasingly alienated after her father's remarriage. The other is Linda, who moves into the next-door house with a new-born infant. After Emanuel impulsively offers babysitting services to her neighbor, she soon learns the older woman is more troubled than appearances would indicate.

Emanuel and Linda supposedly establish a bond which gives them an opportunity to heal their respective traumas, but their relationship isn't very convincing, and the stylized nature of the film also chokes off any real connection to the characters. Although there's some competent acting and luminous cinematography, most of the time everything is too self-consciously strange and slow. Linda and Emanuel are supposed to be oddball personalities, but they're actually rather dull, and the obligatory big revelation doesn't contain any surprises. The resolution of their issues is both glib and implausible, and as a result, the climactic scenes play out without much emotional impact.

A movie with an unusual flavor and with an original theme: the friendship between a young girl, troubled by the loss of her mother, and a woman who is troubled by the loss of her daughter. The film has a very special atmosphere and the acting is very good throughout. The script isn't 100% tight. There are scenes that never lead anywhere (like the scenes with the step-mom suspecting a lesbian relationship between her stepdaughter and the neighbour). The poetic/metaphoric under water scenes seem a bit out of place, and there is also some clumpsy editing. It's easy to forgive these minor flaws though, thanks to the great acting and a touching, original story.

There was an intriguing bond that developed between young Emanuel and her neighbor Linda. Emanuel's mother died while giving birth to her. Linda's infant daughter died tragically with no definitive cause of death determined. Neither character has fully recovered. The film traces the common psychological trauma that the two women share.

The main problem with "The Truth Abut Emanuel" was the pacing. The glacially slow action bogged the film down, especially in the scenes with the "fake" baby of Linda. There were moments when the action even lapsed into comedy.

The content of the film was also grim and depressing. While the performances were sincere, the truth about Emanuel was that she needed help that she was not getting from her kind father and stepmother. One of the most preposterous scenes was when Emanuel assisted Linda in escaping from a nut house.

Will the catharsis of burying Linda's doll on the site of the grave of Emanuel's mother make any difference in the lives of Linda and Emanuel? Based on the profoundly troubled nature of the two characters' connection to reality, the future does not appear promising.

Probably the sole reason I saw this movie was Kaya Scodelario. Like many, I found the character of Effy to be entrancing, and have seen most Scodelario's movies ever since. Thing is, outside of maybe Wuthering Heights, there is that slight feeling that perhaps Scodelario is type casted. However, she hasn't really have had a breakout role to separate her from Effy, and unfortunately this movie is not that role which makes you see her in a whole new light.

Characters & Story

For The Truth About Emanuel there is a rather small cast. Scodelario plays the lead, Emanuel, who is a girl who lost her mother, is quite open about it, and pretty much has the same personality as Effy did during series/season 4. Meaning, while appealing, her issues do tend to create quite a bit of drama in her life of which some she causes, and other bits she is attracted to. Alongside her in the movie are the characters Linda (played by Jessica Biel) a woman dealing with a failed marriage; Dennis (played by Alfred Molina) who plays Emanuel's dad; and then there is Janice (played by Frances O'Connor), the only one who seems to see Emanuel for who she is and seemingly is growing tired of Dennis creating excuses for her.

As for the story though, we focus on the lead-up to Emanuel's 18th birthday. She meets a guy named Claude (played by Aneurin Barnard) who she dates for a little while; meets Linda who seems nice at first, until her eccentricities are revealed; and all the while she has a step-mom in Janice who thinks she is gay, and a dad, Dennis, who just wants a sense of normalcy. But, being that Linda has a secret and Emanuel has a slight obsession with how her mom died, what life would have been like if she died instead of her mom, and other similar topics, we see two peculiar lives converge and create many moments which just leave you turning your head.

Praise

Now, though I criticize Scodelario for nearly playing the same character each role she has, it is hard to deny that most aspects of her one trick pony aren't good. She maintains the Effy allure which gets you interested in her character, and this is what greatly helps maintain interest in the film. Also, I must note that the music in the film was quite beautiful and relaxing. And though I'm about to critique the hell out of the story, I must admit the bits between Emanuel and Claude I thought were quite cute and a saving grace for the film.

Criticism

However the rest of the film seems to not ever fully grasp the concept of grief, and while you understand the various coping mechanisms used in the film, something about the situations just feel off. Not off as in the how someone is coping or why, but the performances. Biel in particular, doesn't make you feel anything even though she has a very sympathetic character. Part of the reason for this is, she is presented as nothing but awkward. Not creepy, or just a sad case worth pity, she is just this odd woman whose secret doesn't even have a real proper build in the film. Sadly, her secret is obvious early on and though you understand why she is in the film, at the same time you sort of wish she was written out.

And while, as noted earlier, Scodelario is the film's saving saving grace, she does add onto the issues of the film. The reason I say this is Scodelario has that ability to teeter between being vulnerable, relatable and yet unobtainable, but once her character goes to a place where she isn't this interesting femme fatale type, she loses you a bit. Now, this isn't to say Scodelario isn't able to, in this film, draw sympathy out of you, but the issue is that when it comes to her character having a mental breakdown, it shows where her abilities as an actress are lacking.

Overall: Skip It

Though I do adore Scodelario, I can't recommend this film. Though the idea of Emanuel living vicariously through Linda's love for her baby wasn't lost on me, the concept just didn't click well in the writing. Also, thought I love the Effy mannerisms and personality, it is starting to get old. And really, even the cute little sub-plot of Emanuel and Claude isn't enough to even say this is worth watching on TV. So, just skip it. Maybe if you are a fan of Scodelario it may be worth checking out, but for a general audience there isn't anything here worth seeing really.

i guess this movie is about loss and deficiency that could never be filled with anything. This is typical subject so it is really important how to make a story without leaving a familiar impression. Like I said, it is familiar to me. Because I have read some short s stories reminiscent of this movie. The images of fishes and ocean reminds me of " legend of suicide" written by David Vann and the story of babysitting the baby who does not exist, A short story of William Trevor which I can't remember the name of. So this movie has beautiful scenes and I like watching it but there is no impression on it. And I cannot actually feel sadness for Emmanuel or Linda