SummaryA worldly ambitious monsignor (Robert DeNiro) clashes with his older brother (Robert DuVall), a cynical Los Angeles homicide detective who is investigating the brutal murder of a young prostitute.
Directed By:Ulu Grosbard
Written By:John Gregory Dunne, Joan Didion, Gary S. Hall
True Confessions
Metascore
Generally Favorable
68
User score
Mixed or Average
6.0
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
50% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
50% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
100
De Niro's exquisite underacting seems partly designed as a foil for Duvall's special ability to express repressed rage and explosive anxiety. They develop a complex and riveting relationship that's one of the most brilliant brother acts in screen history. [28 Sept 1981, p.87]
100
Marvelously well-acted...Quite simply it's one of the most entertaining, most intelligent and most thoroughly satisfying commercial American films in a very long time.
80
Between the splendid cast and the unsavoriness of the period details, True Confessions generates so much absorbing human interest and persuasive texture that the miscalculated plot seems a minor letdown.
60
The film looks like an attempt to make a Martin Scorsese movie without Martin Scorsese.
50
While True Confessions boasts big themes (redemption, reconciliation) and big names, the plot and performances are painfully subtle. It proffers too many details and not enough payoff.
50
The two Roberts (Duvall as cop, De Niro as priest) turn in potentially great performances, but are given precious little to work with.
40
So why does the movie version, with Robert Duvall as Tom and Robert De Niro as Des, proceed at the sluggish pace of a Sodality novena? Perhaps because Dunne's collaborator on the screenplay was his wife, the Empress of Angst, Novelist Joan Didion. Onscreen, characters who should percolate with rage simply simmer. Two exciting, dangerous actors have little to do: Duvall spends too much time pacing and waiting; De Niro's big scene has him hanging up his vestments.
User score
Mixed or Average
63% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
25% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
13% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Nov 9, 2021
7
It took me so long to like this movie, and the main reason why the movie is overall just an ok movie is because Duvall and De Niro story comparison, Duvall murder case story is more exciting, interesting, and enjoyable to watch, while De Niro as a preacher having this boring life and every time for the most part in the beginning till the middle is just empty, they're story finally connected at near the end and to be honest i really like it, i'm interested and excited at both connected story, it finally works until the end of the film, and yes the movie can be way better than this if the only story was Duvall story and they change De Niro character, True Confessions is sort of mixed at the beginning till the middle but it's fixed and works so well towards the end.
Production Company:
- Chartoff-Winkler Productions
Release Date:Sep 25, 1981
Duration:1 h 48 m
Rating:R
Tagline:Two brothers out to save everyone else. But they couldn't save each other.
Awards
Venice Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
• 1 Nomination
