THE GOOD LIAR
****
Director: Bill Condon
Screenwriter: Jeffrey Hatcher, based on the eponymous novel by Nicholas Searle.
Principal cast:
Helen Mirren
Ian McKellen
Russell Tovey
Jim Carter
Mark Lewis Jones
Lucian Msamati
Country: USA
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 109 mins.
Australian release date: 5 December 2019
Previewed at: British Film Festival 2019, Sydney.
It has been three years since the release of acclaimed director Bill Condon’s Beauty And The Beast and he is carrying on the beauty and the beast theme in his latest film, The Good Liar. Set in London in 2009, Condon has delivered a superior tale that is magnificently executed by two of Britain’s finest actors, Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen, she being Beauty and he the Beast. It is the director’s fourth collaboration with McKellen but the first time he has brought the titled pair together on screen. Indeed, it’s the first time anyone has brought them together on celluloid, although they have previously performed opposite each other on stage.
The Good Liar opens with a conversation between an elderly couple who are engaged in a ‘getting to know you’ conversation online. After their first date, we learn that they are both widowed and seem to be well suited to each other. They discuss the online dating system as being full of anticipation, but at times, “…a delusional and hopeless experience, leading to letdowns.” We also learn they are both prone to a few fibs and, early on, they confess to using different names but eventually reveal themselves to be Betty (Mirren) and Roy (McKellen). Roy, however, appears to telling more than just fibs - in fact, he is leading a double life and his intentions aren’t exactly honourable. He inveigles his way into Betty’s life when he invents a mobility problem and she invites him to stay at her bungalow in the suburbs. Betty is well off and lonely and Roy is obviously planning a financial assault on the vulnerable woman (not a spoiler; the trailer tells us this and it’s confirmed very early in the film). Their developing relationship comes under scrutiny from Betty’s grandson Stephen (Russell Tovey), who doesn’t hold back from showing his suspicions about the man who appears to be taking over his gran’s affections. As the couple’s relationship seems to be entering a new level, things go awry on a trip to Berlin when Stephen turns up unannounced, and we begin to realise that there is much more going on here than a dalliance between two lonely people.
Initially screened at the British Film Festival in Australia this year, The Good Liar is an entertaining, if somewhat flawed, movie. The problem doesn’t lie with the performances or the production values, but rather with American playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s script (Hatcher also wrote Condon’s 2015 film Mr. Holmes, another McKellen starrer). In a witty line, the publicity handbill says to ‘read between the lies’, but the twists turn the wrong way at times. When interviewed about the character of Roy, Condon stated, “This is a guy who is a con man and not sentimental at all”, and this attitude is brought to the fore by McKellen’s wonderfully smarmy performance as he demonstrates his total disregard for his prey. Mirren is, of course, his match as the apparently not very worldly Betty, a woman who just seems to be looking for companionship in her golden years. The main support roles are also nailed by Russell Tovey and Jim Carter, the latter playing McKellen’s accomplice, a very different role to his Downton Abbey persona!
The Good Liar should keep you guessing until the very end, although astute viewers may be a little disappointed. It’s a thriller in the Hitchcockian vein that, along with Knives Out, is providing the multiplexes with some high-standard, good old-fashioned enjoyment for mystery lovers over the holiday period.
Screenwriter: Jeffrey Hatcher, based on the eponymous novel by Nicholas Searle.
Principal cast:
Helen Mirren
Ian McKellen
Russell Tovey
Jim Carter
Mark Lewis Jones
Lucian Msamati
Country: USA
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 109 mins.
Australian release date: 5 December 2019
Previewed at: British Film Festival 2019, Sydney.
It has been three years since the release of acclaimed director Bill Condon’s Beauty And The Beast and he is carrying on the beauty and the beast theme in his latest film, The Good Liar. Set in London in 2009, Condon has delivered a superior tale that is magnificently executed by two of Britain’s finest actors, Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen, she being Beauty and he the Beast. It is the director’s fourth collaboration with McKellen but the first time he has brought the titled pair together on screen. Indeed, it’s the first time anyone has brought them together on celluloid, although they have previously performed opposite each other on stage.
The Good Liar opens with a conversation between an elderly couple who are engaged in a ‘getting to know you’ conversation online. After their first date, we learn that they are both widowed and seem to be well suited to each other. They discuss the online dating system as being full of anticipation, but at times, “…a delusional and hopeless experience, leading to letdowns.” We also learn they are both prone to a few fibs and, early on, they confess to using different names but eventually reveal themselves to be Betty (Mirren) and Roy (McKellen). Roy, however, appears to telling more than just fibs - in fact, he is leading a double life and his intentions aren’t exactly honourable. He inveigles his way into Betty’s life when he invents a mobility problem and she invites him to stay at her bungalow in the suburbs. Betty is well off and lonely and Roy is obviously planning a financial assault on the vulnerable woman (not a spoiler; the trailer tells us this and it’s confirmed very early in the film). Their developing relationship comes under scrutiny from Betty’s grandson Stephen (Russell Tovey), who doesn’t hold back from showing his suspicions about the man who appears to be taking over his gran’s affections. As the couple’s relationship seems to be entering a new level, things go awry on a trip to Berlin when Stephen turns up unannounced, and we begin to realise that there is much more going on here than a dalliance between two lonely people.
Initially screened at the British Film Festival in Australia this year, The Good Liar is an entertaining, if somewhat flawed, movie. The problem doesn’t lie with the performances or the production values, but rather with American playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s script (Hatcher also wrote Condon’s 2015 film Mr. Holmes, another McKellen starrer). In a witty line, the publicity handbill says to ‘read between the lies’, but the twists turn the wrong way at times. When interviewed about the character of Roy, Condon stated, “This is a guy who is a con man and not sentimental at all”, and this attitude is brought to the fore by McKellen’s wonderfully smarmy performance as he demonstrates his total disregard for his prey. Mirren is, of course, his match as the apparently not very worldly Betty, a woman who just seems to be looking for companionship in her golden years. The main support roles are also nailed by Russell Tovey and Jim Carter, the latter playing McKellen’s accomplice, a very different role to his Downton Abbey persona!
The Good Liar should keep you guessing until the very end, although astute viewers may be a little disappointed. It’s a thriller in the Hitchcockian vein that, along with Knives Out, is providing the multiplexes with some high-standard, good old-fashioned enjoyment for mystery lovers over the holiday period.