True Confessions
Director: Ulu Grosbard
Year Released: 1981
Rating: 1.0
A young girl (modeled after the famous "Black Dahlia" case) is ruthlessly dismembered and left in a field - Robert Duvall investigates, but his brother, a priest, (Robert De Niro) may somehow be involved. There are so many plot points and characters, and the film so vague and unresolved that by the hour mark Dunne and Didion are still dissecting the narrative and suspects - it should be probing and multifaceted, but instead it's confusing and irksome: everyone's a sleaze bag with some secret past - couldn't we have any good natured people to balance out the negativity? - and the attitude towards women borders on contempt. Watching De Niro try to play a dowdy, hand-wringing priest is like watching Harvey Keitel portray Judas Iscariot.
