I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I count three times that Mark Wahlberg has taken parts that were originally done by stars from old Hollywood. He was the astronaut taking Charlton Heston's role in the remake of Planet Of The Apes. He played John Wayne's role in the urban remake of The Sons Of Katie Elder, Four Sons. Finally in this film, Wahlberg tries out playing the many named man that Cary Grant played in Charade. As in Charade, do we ever know The Truth About Charlie.Three different icons with three different personalities. Well at least he didn't try to imitate Cary Grant in The Truth About Charlie. Mark was his own man here and frankly he's the best thing about this film. Thandie Newton never seemed as vulnerable as Audrey Hepburn in the original. And Tim Robbins was absolutely colorless as the fake CIA man, not a patch on Walter Matthau.But the biggest error was the elimination of those colorful conspirators George Kennedy, James Coburn, and Ned Glass from the original. Those guys added so much to Charade.Not to mention the style and glamor that Stanley Donen brought to Charade has been boiled right out of this film. Jonathan Demme who got such acclaim for Silence Of The Lambs was the man at the helm. None of these people qualify as a Hannibal the Cannibal type villain. I think he forgot what picture he was on.Fans of the original will be sadly disappointed.

Regina Lambert (Tandie Newton) returns home to Paris to be told by the police that her new husband Charlie has been killed. She was about to divorce him anyways but discovers that Charlie is not who she thought he was. He had cleaned out everything including the furniture and the $1.8 million proceeds have disappeared. Then she runs into Lewis Bartholamew (Mark Wahlberg) again who she met on her vacation. Commandant Dominique is investigating the case.It's almost a joke to have Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton in the roles once played by Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. I like Newton but she's no Hepburn. Don't even try to justify Wahlberg for Grant. I'm not a great fan of the original but that leading duo can sell me anything. This leading duo is a poor substitute. No matter how hard director Jonathan Demme tries, I cringe every time Wahlberg shows up.

The credits for this movie say that it is based on Stanley Donan's Charade, starring Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. I suppose it is, but this movie inhabits a completely different world. There was something of a mystery to Charade, but its most memorable parts were the clever dialogues between Hepburn and Grant and the romantic tension. This movie has no clever dialogue, and very little romantic tension. There is no chemistry at all between the two leads. Wahlberg's character has no charm, and therefore elicits little interest from the audience.And the shots of a beautiful, romantic Paris have been replaced with shots of a modern, grungy Paris.We're left with a story about a disagreeable set of characters moving through an unattractive series of settings. The business about the stamps, which had included a wonderful cameo for the stamp dealer in Charade, flies by with almost no interest here.I forced myself to watch it to the end, but I don't see why you should bother.

Okay I understand that there are a lot of die hard 'Charade' fans out there and I can totally sympathize with you. My devotion to Audrey Hepburn is the reason why I put this movie off for so long. I caved a couple of nights ago and found myself watching a throughly entertaining movie. I realized whilst watching the film that I was not watching for a 'Charade' remake but a whole new movie altogether. I understand that the remake thing is getting old now, but that's how all art is formed. Think of the novel; think of how many novel have been modeled and copied Don Quixote, and they were often good novels as well. So I think instead of viewing remakes as simply that; a remake. We should be watching it as an entirely new film that hasn't been made yet.