Romancefest 5: The Awful Truth

THE AWFUL TRUTH is a nice change of pace this month from pretty heavy dramas to the light weight screwball comedy genre.

The film stars Cary Grant in his first really big role as wealthy New York socialite Jerry Warriner, but Irene Dunne, already an established star at the time, gets top billing as Jerry's wife, Lucy.

As the movie begins, Grant has just returned from being away from his wife for 2 weeks. Apparently, he's lied to her and said he was in Florida so he's getting a fake tan and bringing home a basket of "real" Florida oranges to back up his story. We never find out exactly what he's up to, but it's implied that he may have been off having an affair.

Upon returning, Grant finds Dunne unexpectedly returning home from an overnight trip with her French singing instructor (Alexander D'Arcy). Grant assumes they were off having an affair, though Dunne convincingly explains away the suspicion circumstances. Still, she notices the supposed Florida oranges actually hail from California and soon both husband and wife find reason for suspicion. Neither of them wants to back down and call each others' bluff, so it's not long before they're in court, and not long before they're counting the days until their divorce becomes final.

Both attempt their own rebound romances during the 60 day period leading to the last day of their marriage, and both make attempts to mess up each others' new relationships out of jealousy.

This movie is light on plot and doesn't have a very big supporting cast, so most of the weight of it rests on the shoulders of the lead couple, Grant and Dunne, and they're great. Grant isn't yet in full Cary Grant mode, so he's kind of a mixture of a more standard learding man and the persona we later come to expect in his performances. Dunne is beautiful and a gifted comedienne, more than carrying her half of each joke, comedic sequence and prat fall.

Ralph Bellamy is good as Dunne's rebound guy, a humble, dim-witted and rich mother's boy from Oklahoma. Cecil Cunningham is also funny as Dunne's post-marriage roommate, Aunt Patsy, who rolls her eyes at the madcap proceedings and delivers cutting one-liners with great timing.

The fun thing about this movie is that it's clear how much Grant and Dunne's characters love each other all throughout the film. Their attempts to one up each other, make each other jealous, and sabotage each other are always in good humor with a wink and nod, almost as if the two of them are in on it together instead of against each other, with their supporting players the unwitting victims of their own little faux-adultery game. The lead couple knows each other so well that it's useless for anyone else in their lives to try to get close to them because they'll never share the same wink and nod that Grant and Dunne do.

I wouldn't go so far as to say I can identify with this kind of relationship, but I will say that I've often wished I could. The idea of you and one other person sharing an inside joke, or thinking the same thing at the same time, or holding yourselves over everyone else is irresistibly attractive to me. Nothing makes you feel better than someone you really like liking you just as much at the expense of everyone else.

Is it a very mature way to feel? No. But it's fun.

My favorite line:

"So long as I'm different, don't you think that, well, maybe things could be the same again? Only a little different, huh?"

When you really know someone, the seemingly important stuff like what you've been through or how you've changed or what life has done to you or hasn't done doesn't really matter. The look on your face, or the sound of your laugh, or the way you feel when you look at each other feels so familiar that it can't be described rationally and can't be faked. At a certain point, you have to give up the fight and just go with it.