TRU LOVE (Kate Johnston, Shauna MacDonald). 87 minutes. Opens Friday (January 23) at the Carlton. For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
Where to watch: iTunes
When commitment-phobe Tru (co-director/co-writer Shauna MacDonald) meets Alice (Kate Trotter) – the mom of Suzanne (Christine Horne), one of her one-night stands – she’s shocked to discover herself falling for the older woman.
Tru Love has a seriously soapy quality – many doors get slammed. And note to screenwriters: resist the urge to create scenes where major characters have extended conversations with their dead spouses. Such sequences made a mess of biopic The Iron Lady, and here the scenes between Alice and the ghost of her husband definitely get in the way.
More problematic is the premise. Why would Suzanne, who is so upset with Tru, arrange to have her meet her mother in the first place?
But the performances are exceptional. Horne is all twitchy intensity, and Trotter, with that great voice of hers, is delightful as the woman discovering new possibilities. You can see what’s turning Tru on.
But it’s MacDonald, winning as the title character, who makes you care about what happens. She’s infinitely watchable.
