'The Whole Truth' is a supernatural mystery thriller film that follows brother and sister, Putt and Pim, as they move to their grandparents house after their mother Mai is in a car accident and is in a coma. As the children settle in the house, they notice a hole in the living-room wall, through which they see haunting and ominous visions of a small child.
The film follows Pim and Putt as they are thrown into a difficult situation - having to move in with their grandparents that they hardly know, as they had never spent any time together and the kids are troubled by issues they have at school, as Putt is being blackmailed by a bully and Pim faces criticism from her peers. On top of it all, the absence of their mother makes it even more difficult to live with their grandparents, as over time, Pim and Putt begin experiencing supernatural happenings at their grandparents home.
One day the siblings notice a hole in the wall, and confront their grandparents about it, who do not seem to see the hole. As time goes on and each sibling peers through the hole, it is revealed to them that they are seeing visions of the past, as the ghostly girl within reveals the circumstances of her death. In the meantime Mai's father, and the children's grandfather, an ex-police commander chases down the culprit of the car accident that landed Mai in the hospital. As he chases down the young man he believes to be at fault, a rich young heir to an influential businessman, the grandfather proceeds to take revenge on him by burning him alive after flagging him down as he is drunk driving home. Later, it is revealed that the young man had not been the driver, and had not caused Mai's accident.
Subsequently, Pim and Putt are able to put the whole picture together by discovering that the young child they are seeing through the hole was their sister who died of drinking rat poison. The situation unfolds for Pim and Putt to confront their grandmother who fills in the blanks and reveals that Mai's firs born was left with their father, Krit one day, and as he had passed out drunk, the young girl, hiding in the closet under the stairs, had been trapped and had succumbed to the poison. On returning home, Mai and her parents discover what had happened and as they are in a state of shock, Krit is shot dead.
It is then uncovered that Mai's mother, angry at the fact that her perfect daughter had given birth to a deformed child had been slowly poisoning the girl by putting poison in her milk, as she had not done to Putt. Mai and her children leave her parents house and return home. Subsequently, the grandparents are haunted by their past misdeeds and the apparition of the young girl and the man the grandfather has burned to death appear before them and cause their demise. In the closing of the film, Mai can be seen by her vanity as it is revealed that she was the one to have shot Krit.
'The Whole Truth' is a mystery that combines elements of a thriller, horror and the supernatural, at times even trying to veer towards science fiction. However, with the multitude of elements incorporated in the feature, the film maintains a tense and dark tone throughout, yet fails to deliver a story with a definitive voice, as at times it sways violently between drama, as it focuses on the issues the siblings are having with acclimatizing to living with their grandparents, a revenge thriller, as the grandfather is trying to hunt down the rich young man, and a horror film as the haunting visions of the young girl crop up throughout the movie. Initially the film also suggests that there is something queer about the grandparents, as the children question their identities, yet that seems to pass as a fleeting though one the film jumps to seemingly more pertinent issues.
Throughout the runtime, the feature attempts to cover a slew of different issues, including bullying, guilt, revenge and mental illness. With each topic the film seems to graze the surface of the issue, yet does not go beyond raising it. With Putt, as he is being bullied, the wrongdoer exerts his power over him, and is subsequently scared away as he is injured at the grandparents home, yet there is no follow though in concluding the story here. The bully is never mentioned again and seemingly forgotten about after his last interaction with Putt. Similarly, Pim's issue at school with her cheer-leading peers is raised and culminates in a confrontation with another girl, as she is in league with Putt's bully and has released a compromising video of her. The situation climaxes in Pim's teacher facing the bully, yet the situation seems to fall flat as we see no repercussions for the wrongdoer or what effect that has had on Pim, ultimately delivering another element to the film that is left unexamined.
Most disappointingly, after the reveal of the grandmother as having been the main culprit in the young girls death, the film fails to examine the impact this has had on Mai. The story is clear in that she had severed ties with her parents, however this occurred before the truth had come to light and is not further explored after the fact.
The main focus of the feature is tied with the young girl that Putt and Pim see through the hole. Here the film leans into the horror aspect and delivers a few good scares, and the feature makes great use of practical effects to add to the horror aspect. However, the use of CGI in certain instances lessens the horror and stoops to an almost ridiculous level as it attempts to add to the dread of the overall story. The missteps in the overuse of computer generated special effects cheapen the experience as the film could have created a more lasting impact had it muted some of the seemingly outrageous instances of absurd depictions of horror.
'The Whole Truth' is a mix of horror and suspense that utilizes a plethora of themes and issues throughout its story, however the film fails to create a lasting impact, as it attempts to cover a number of important topics but does not go beyond touching on those issues, and fails to create a deeper examination of anything that it presents to the viewing audience. The multitude of themes and mix of genres presents to be an issue to the feature, as it tries to make use of many tones, yet fails to create a single, lasting idea the film can stand behind.
Score: 1/4
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