True Things

Kate Perkin, a single woman in her early thirties, works in a benefits office in the English coastal town of Ramsgate. The job is at once tedious and fraught; Kate escapes by Googling idyllic holiday locations. A moment of flirtation with a male claimant initially seems like a mere blip in her routine.

But when the man shows up to meet her at the end of her working day, Kate finds herself propelled headlong into a liaison that displaces every other priority in her life. It starts with blowing off her close friend Alison, who wants nothing more than to fix her up with a nice respectable boyfriend. Then she starts lying to her employer, who already considers her a loose cannon. All to keep impulsive, unpredictable arrangements with a man about whom she knows almost nothing – he is saved in her phone only as “Blond”.

A blind date with a far more solid prospect, arranged by Alison, offers a route back to the safe and conventional, which Kate firmly rejects. She opts instead for a drugged and drunken night with Blond, which peaks with him declaring the two of them soulmates and asking her to accompany him on a trip to Spain for his sister’s wedding. But when the high wears off, so does Blond’s warmth. He treats Kate coldly, helps himself to an indefinite loan of her car, and drops out of contact. Pitched into confusion, Kate takes it out on her life, quarrelling with her parents and finally getting herself fired from her job. 

Again, Kate tries to get things back on track. Again, Blond reappears – this time with an unexpected follow-up on his offer to take her to Spain. Kate resists, but weakly. Soon enough, she’s on a plane. Will sunlight disinfect her strange interactions with this charismatic, unreliable character? Will her “soulmate” let her know who he really is at last? Or is she being drawn in, once again, only to be pushed away?

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