True Things: Making a very big romantic mistake

Adrian Lyne's Deep Water, abysmal as it is, hasn't killed off the erotic psychodrama just yet. Harry Wootliff's second feature, an arresting relationship thriller, features Luther's Ruth Wilson and The Souvenir's Tom Burke, and enough chemistry to guarantee selection for Venice's competitive 2021 line up.

Bad boys don’t play as well as they used to in the current cinematic climate. And yet they retain a durable movieverse choice as a doomy attraction and dramatic source of conflict with friends and family.

Thus, in a dull seaside town, benefit claims worker Kate (Wilson) is immediately taken with an ex-con with dyed blonde hair, known only as Blond (Burke). Their ill-advised relationship is heralded by a sexual encounter in which she bangs her head off the concrete in a multistory carpark. The viewer remains uncertain if she hit her head too hard or not enough. Her pragmatic and largely unhelpful best friend, Alison (I Daniel Blake’s Hayley Squires) attempts to set Kate up with nice guys to no avail. Kate’s mother warns her that “men find her difficult”.

Wootliff’s earthy adaptation of Deborah Kay Davies’ novel, True Things About Me is made all the more tactile by Ashley Connor’s cinematography, which invests every frame with grabbing sexiness.

Kate’s carnality, even when soundtracked by PJ Harvey, exists on a crevice of romantic rooting and dismay. Several scenes will leave the viewer shouting at the heroine as if she were descending into the cursed basement of a horror film. “Don’t give him your car keys!” Expertly poised performances from Wilson and Burke ensure that one will equally and perversely root for their foolish relationship all the way down.

Following on from Harry Wootliff’s infertility romance, Only You, this confirms the British writer-director as an unmissable talent.