Film Review: "The Good Liar" (2019).

"Read between the lies" in The Good Liar. This crime thriller film directed and produced by Bill Condon, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, and based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Searle. The film centres on career con artist Roy Courtnay, who can hardly believe his luck when he meets well-to-do widow Betty McLeish online. As Betty opens her home and life to him, Roy is surprised to find himself caring about her, turning what should be a cut-and-dry swindle into the most treacherous tightrope walk of his life.

In March 2018, it was announced that a film adaptation of Searle's novel was to be directed by Condon with Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren to star. By April, Russell Tovey, Jim Carter, Mark Lewis Jones, Laurie Davidson, Phil Dunster, Lucian Msamati, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Tunji Kasim, Stella Stocker, Daniel Betts, and Céline Buckens rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place throughout England, as well as Berlin, Germany.

The film stars McKellen, Mirren, Tovey, Carter, Jones, Davidson, Dunster, Msamati, Jóhannesson, Kasim, Stocker, Betts, and Buckens. The film serves as a creaking "star vehicle" for two stars who should have known better, and maybe had a little chemistry. Both McKellen and Mirren are at once an obvious choice for the parts and a hard sell to audiences soothed by their ageing star power after their string of less-than-stellar efforts after decades of reliability and class.

The two leads and their star power are undeniably appealing, but they can't make up for The Good Liar's slow, muddled plot, or the lack of chemistry between McKellen and Mirren. The film displays austere cinematography and Condon's waning skill at working with actors, especially with McKellen. The tone is lightly comic, the dialogue flirty and amusing but the performances are unengaged. There's no floor of reality, as there always was in a Hitchcock film, even his light confections. It is a tense, troubling thriller, marred only by problems of pacing and some implausible characterisation, it's full of vivid, miserable life. The film begins as an ingenious exposition of the great truth about charming people having something to hide: namely, their utter disturbing past. It ends up as a dismayingly unthrilling thriller and bafflingly unconvincing character study. The film's dreadful dialogue and plot-holes do not help. It is nothing more than a silly inane story lacking strong characters and ay sense of adventure. Despite the star power, the film lacks fireworks. It proves to be a case of big star power with low wattage. With bland visuals, cookie-cutter characters, and cliched Hitchcockian plot twists, the film offers an unpleasantly pungent treat for fans of the genre. In the end, the film was a bland, badly directed, star-driven cinematic molestation of Searle's tight-as-a-drum novel. This should have been a potent combination, but it turns out to be a fizzer. What's to enjoy about this one from the director and star that brought you Gods and Monsters?

Simon says The Good Liar receives:

Also, see my review for Mr. Holmes.