This psychological drama is the vehicle for the mesmerising performance of multi award-winning actress Ruth Wilson (The Affair, a TV series), who won an MBE in 2021 Birthday Honours for services to drama. The sexual chemistry is provided by Tom Burke (Mank – as Orson Welles).
Kate (Wilson) is a 30-something benefits claim worker in Ramsgate who is bored with her job and has thoughts of a more exciting life, perhaps with travel. She has a low sense of self-worth and her parents think her “flighty and too difficult to keep a boyfriend”.
She is late for work and in danger of losing her job when she interviews an unnamed ex-convict, just out of prison. She feels an instant attraction to this attractive peroxide blond with a cocksure grin, and when he says “what are you doing for lunch?” it leads to an erotic assignation in a car park.
The risk of danger is enticing. She saves him as “Blond” on her phone and an unhealthy obsessive sexual relationship develops, displacing any other priority in her life.
He treats her casually, often not returning her phone calls, while she tries to establish boundaries, but is obsessed, particularly when he is not there. Unpredictable and manipulative, he borrows her car and disappears for a week, then invites her to travel to Spain to accompany him to his sister’s wedding.
This leads her to throw caution to the winds – and to a rather unsettling and unsatisfactory ending, where she finds an understanding of her relationship with herself.
This is the second feature film from director Harry Wootliff (Only You) who co-wrote the screenplay with Molly Davis. It was based on a book called The Things About Me by Deborah Kay Davies. Cinematography is discreetly done by Ashley Connor.
102 minutes.
Showing at Luna Leederville and Luna SX from September 1.
Watch the trailer…
The True Things official trailer can be found on YouTube.
