The Unbelievable Truth is a 1989 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Hal Hartley

Hal Hartley

Hal Hartley is an American film director, screenwriter, producer composer, who became a key figure in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and 1990s...

, starring Adrienne Shelly

Adrienne Shelly

Adrienne Shelly , was an American actress, director and screenwriter. Making her name in independent films such as 1989's The Unbelievable Truth and 1990's Trust, Shelly transitioned to a writing and directing career in subsequent years...

 and Robert John Burke. It was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize in 1990 at the Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

. The region 1

DVD region code

DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...

 DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 was released by Anchor Bay Entertainment

Anchor Bay Entertainment

Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...

 on March 11, 2001, but it has been discontinued for no disclosed reason. The DVD contained the movie's trailer and an interview with Hartley. Possible Films, Hal Hartley's company, released a 20th Anniversary DVD on October 19, 2010.

Plot

The Unbelievable Truth, like most early Hartley films, is a study of relationships, but here the tension is between expectation and reality.

Beautiful Audry is expected to remain with her high-school quarterback boyfriend and become a successful fashion model

Model (person)

A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....

, but she instead becomes interested in a man of mystery, a man with at least one manslaughter

Manslaughter

Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...

in his past. Many characters speculate about how many people he might have killed, and the stories of his past are taller every time they're told. A genius mechanic who is uncomfortable with relationships, he has to learn to adapt to the interest of this woman supposedly beyond his reach, and to learn to trust his instincts when he has to fight to win her back.

External links

• The Unbelievable Truth at Hal Hartley's Website