难以置信的事实

Hartley's early feature is a delightful experience. The film is filled with symbolism and the characters are well-drawn. Adrienne Shelley is an excellent foil to herself, showcasing her uncanny ability to portray her characters perfectly from the beginning of her career. Her character inspires so many levels of symbolism that it is almost embarrassingly rich. As Josh, Robert Burke gives an absolutely masterful performance. Dressed in black, he repeatedly gets mistaken for a priest, yet his symbolism is rich: he abstains from alcohol, he practices celibacy (is, in fact a virgin), and seemingly has taken on vows of poverty, and humility as well. His humility seems hardest to swallow, seeming at times, almost false, a pretense. Yet, as we learn more of Josh we see genuineness in his modesty, that his humility is indeed earnest and believable. What seems ironic is the character is fairly forthright in his simplicity, yet so richly drawn it becomes the viewer who wants to make him out as more than what he actually is. The scene between Josh and Jane is hilarious . . . real. But Hartley can't leave it as such and his trick, having the actors repeat the dialogue over-and-over becomes frustratingly "arty" and annoying . . . until again it becomes hilarious. What a terrific sense of bizarre reality this lends the film (like kids in a perpetual "am not"/"are too" argument). Hartley weaves all of a small neighborhood's idiosyncrasies into a tapestry of seeming stereotypes but which delves far beneath the surface, the catalyst being that everyone believes they know what the "unbelievable truth" of the title is, yet no two people can agree (including our hero) on what exactly that truth is. A wonderful little movie with some big ideas.