Product Details

• Actors: Adrienne Shelly, Robert John Burke, Chris Cooke, Julia McNeal
• Directors: Hal Hartley
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Vidmark / Trimark
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301922654
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,734 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent debut, April 13, 2002

By 

alex bushman (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unbelievable Truth [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Hal Hartley is a lover of the non-acting film approach and his dialogue is so witty that his movies could be stage plays. In this movie he introduces some of the motifs that he uses in his other movies as well. These things include 1)non-reacting dialogue and 2)regurgitated dialogue. All of these things: the non-acting, and the various dialogue are filtered through a deadpan sense of humor about the world. The story is about a girl who fears that the world may end by atomic warfare and is contemplating college, but doesn't want to go. She falls for a mysterious man who has just been released from prison for murder. He in fact murdered the father of one of her friends and that creates dramatic tension. Her father tries to bribe her into various things like: going to college and becoming a model, however, nothing works out the way that he would like it to because his daughter is smarter than he is and is always changing the deals. This film deals with serious issues in a lightweight and brainy way. It attempts to answer questions like: Are we really only as good as the deals we make and keep? and "Can a man wear an all black suit, not drink and still not be a priest?" I imagine that by reading those last two lines you have guessed that this movie is a bit weird, well you'd be right, so it's not wrong when I say that this film is not for everyone, or even most people. If you need to feel that a movie must contain highly dramatic and technical acting to sustain interest, then DON'T WATCH THIS MOVIE because it doesn't have it. It's very similar to Richard Linklater's films in feeling and content. The dialogue is realistic and something you might hear at a college, or a coffeehouse, so if you don't want to watch a feature film full of that DON'T WATCH THIS. That's the ultimate rule for whether you should see this.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hartly and Shelly are great together, December 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Unbelievable Truth [VHS] (VHS Tape)

It is a great shame this video isn't available. I saw this movie after seeing Trust, also directed by Hartly and also staring Adrienne Shelly. I was surprised by the range both showed between the two films. If you get a chance to see this film, it's worth the time.

5.0 out of 5 stars An Unpretentious, but very funny, romantic comedy, October 3, 2005

By 

Diego Banducci (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Unbelievable Truth [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"The Unbelievable Truth" is the first of two similar films directed by Hal Hartley (the other is "Trust") featuring many of the same actors and themes. "The Unbelevable Truth," however, is a screwball romantic comedy, while "Trust" is flat-out black humor. If you're planning to watch both, watch "The Unbelievable Truth" first.

As other reviewers have pointed out, the acting is low-key, the dialogue real--this is a film where the viewer revels in the dialogue. We spaced it out over two nights because we enjoyed the film so much.