Come Mar. 25 home
entertainment consumers will be confronted with a film title that could pass as
yet another sorry sequel to, or rip-off of, director Just Jaeckin’s 1974 erotic
tale starring Sylvia Kristel as Emmanuelle.
The film, of course, was
simply titled Emmanuelle, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from making sequels
and spin-offs — with various spellings on the name — to point where even the
most ardent of Emmanuelle affectionados have long since given up caring about
such things.
Thankfully, The Truth
About Emanuel is not even remotely related to this sub-genre of
films. Well Go U.S.A. has captured
writer/director Francesca Gregorini’s film distribution in the domestic market and
announced this past week that DVD and Blu-ray editions are planned for Mar. 25.
The film debuted at
Sundance last January and worked the festival circuit throughout 2013 … racking
up awards along the way, including honors for director Francesca Gregorini
(only her second film … the first being the 2009 release of Tanner
Hall) and her cinematographer, Polly Morgan. A limited theatrical break is planned for
Jan. 14 to help raise further awareness for the home entertainment launch.
Kaya Scordelario (perhaps
best known as Effy in the TV series Skins) is Emanuel, a SoCal teen who
is basically a temper-tantrum brat with a gutter mouth who gives her father
Dennis (Alfred Molina) and stepmother Janice (Frances O’Connor) the full force
of her wrath.
And why? Because her mom died giving birth to her and
she hasn’t been able to move beyond it. Being
a teenager, you would have thought that she might have other things to obsess
on by now.
Things change —
dramatically — when Linda (played by Jessica Biel), a single working mom with
an infant, moves in next door. She
bears, in Emanuel’s mind, a striking resemblance to her dead mom and this flips
the prickly teen into a “sugar and spice” fantasy mode with offers of
babysitting and help with chores for her new neighbor.
Perhaps this is what she
needs, something of a cathartic break from the past! However, when you toss in a few secrets here
and there and then mix in the sexual (dating) awakenings of a teenage girl —
who has become fixated on her neighbor as the image of her long dead mother —
you can only imagine that her “break” will not be in the normal sense.
With top-notch acting
from the leads, especially Scordelario, sure-handed direction and writing from
Gregorini and technical aspects that belie the film’s production budget, this
taut thriller — The Truth About Emanuel — should be high-up on everyone’s
must-see list come Mar. 25.
To download this week's
complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
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