Why, oh, why couldn’t The Good Liar live up to its amazing stars?
How can a feature length film starring Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen not be as good as the episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in which the brilliant actors act out the President’s Ukraine call?
We’ve been watching coming attractions for The Good Liar for months. The first teaser hooked us immediately and, even though the movie got a little less interesting with each new, longer and more revealing trailer, we were still very much looking forward to seeing it.
The movie starts off with Betty (Mirren) and Roy (McKellen) meeting virtually on an online dating site. She’s sipping wine while claiming she doesn’t drink and he’s writing that he doesn’t smoke while a cigarette dangles from his mouth.
In other words, they’re both liars.
Unfortunately, knowing that before the opening credits are even done gives away too much too soon. The twists and turns that are supposed to shock us don’t. The cat and mouse game Betty and Roy play becomes as predictable as Tom and Jerry.
All of that may even have been okay if those twists and turns didn’t revolve around subject matter that deserves to be taken much more seriously than this. It shouldn’t be the “surprise.” To make it even worse, that whole background has to be told by one of the characters – and there is nothing lazier in a movie than that. If you have to explain the story by bringing in an X factor, the movie loses much of its oomph.
I didn’t read the book by Nicholas Searle, on which The Good Liar is based so it’s hard to say whether the fault lies with the story or the director, Bill Condon.
We guessed much of the movie early on but, because Mirren and McKellen are such pros, I’d be lying if I said we didn’t enjoy watching them anyway.
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