The Truth

‘Irony has no place in this room,’ advises Donna Shuck (Elizabeth McGovern), as she welcomes a new group of variously needy individuals who’ve signed up for her seven-step programme, ‘Adventures in Truth’. No place at Serenity Lodge in the remote Highlands, perhaps, but irony is plentiful in Milton’s low-budget but highly satisfying, slyly intelligent UK indie.

An inevitably motley crew gathers to confront the truth about themselves (and, of course, each other): feisty wheelchair-user Candy (Elaine Cassidy), bankrupt dotcom queen Martha, sensitive Spud, predatory lech Felix, nurse-turned-dominatrix Blossom, muso Scott, and Croatian Mia, whom Donna allows into therapy sessions in return for cooking and house-cleaning… Cue (just as inevitably given the way such movie gatherings go) an accelerating spiral of spiteful lies and recriminations, as the shared oath to tell the truth and nothing but takes its toll…

Nothing else is inevitable, however, in this engagingly fresh take on a subgenre of potentially slim pickings. With consistently interesting plot twists and shifts in power between the uncertainly allied characters, the film’s a real rollercoaster, alternating deliciously deadpan humour with serious insights, deft satire with dark suspense, and even managing to succeed, here and there, in several different tonal registers at once. Though it may seem clear where Milton’s sympathy lies, he keeps pulling the rug from under our feet, so we’re never quite sure whether we’re watching a mystery thriller, a sophisticated parody or a wry comment on our capacity to turn ethics into whatever’s expedient. Only at the end are we left with any certainty: the truth is dead. Long live the truth!