Movie Review: The Good Liar

The Good Liar ** ½ / *****

Directed by: Bill Condon.

Written by: Jeffrey Hatcher based on the novel by Nicholas Searle.

Starring: Helen Mirren (Betty McLeish), Ian McKellen (Roy Courtnay), Jim Carter (Vincent), Russell Tovey (Steven), Mark Lewis Jones (Bryn), Laurie Davidson (Hans Taub – 1948), Phil Dunster (Young Roy), Lucian Msamati (Beni), Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson (Vlad), Spike White (Hans Taub - 1943), Stella Stocker (Frau Schröder), Daniel Betts (Herr Schröder), Nell Williams (Lili).

 

Spoiler Warning: I don’t really discuss spoilers here – although the movie is so easily spoiled, because the twists are easy to guess, you may just want to skip this if you hate spoilers.

 

One thing that usually completely blows thrillers for me – especially light thrillers that offer little beyond the twists and turns of the plot – is when you are ahead of the plot from the beginning. This was true for me walking into the theater to see The Good Liar, because I was pretty sure I saw the big final twist coming from the previews, and even if I couldn’t guess all of the details – all of the surprisingly dark places the film will go – it is mainly true that I did. When you add in a few other details – like the year the film takes place in, and the movie the elderly couple at the heart of the movie go to on their first date – and even if you don’t know the specifics, you get the gist of where this is all going – and it gets there.

 

The elderly couple is Roy (Ian McKellan) and Betsy (Helen Mirren) – two widowers, around 80 each, who are just looking for some companionship in their later years. They meet online, and have chemistry on their first date, and so they keep dating – and it seems rather sweet. That doesn’t last long though since the movie fairly quickly reveals Roy to be a conman – he is working a con with his partner Vincent (Jim Carter) when we meet him, and he pretty much spells out what he plans to do to Betsy – essentially steal her money (nearly three million pounds) and disappear. Her grandson Steven (Russell Tovey) is suspicious of Roy from the start – although he really doesn’t have reason to be, even if we know he’s right.

 

From there, the film moves along at a brisk pace. The film was directed by Bill Condon – and I much prefer him in these types of films about older people (like two of his previous films with McKellan Gods and Monsters and Mr. Holmes) – then I do when he makes the blockbusters on his resume (a couple of the Twilight films, Beauty and the Beast, etc.). This one is pulpier than most of Condon’s films in this vein – and he’s surprisingly adept at it, including a wonderfully suspenseful sequence on a subway platform. He keeps the films moving at a brisk pace – and is aided great by the two leads, especially McKellan, who relishes every moment he gets to play this slimy character, who always has cons within cons going – and sees everyone as a mark.

 

Seemingly innocent revelations early in the plot give you an idea that the film is going to dive back into a dark past though – and it does so in some surprising ways. As the film progresses, I was quite taken aback by just how dark things in the film got – much darker then the first half of the film, which is light and nimble and fun led me to believe was going to happen. I don’t think the film quite handles the transition into that darkness very well – nor does it handle the transition back out of it, when the film gets to its denouement, which you probably see coming from a mile away.

 

Still though, The Good Liar is, for the first half, an entertaining little thriller with a wonderful performance by McKellan, and a tricky performance by Mirren, who does her best not to give the game away. Because that’s what The Good Liar is – a game. It’s the type of film that would make for ideal viewing on a lazy Sunday afternoon as you fold laundry – something to kind of half pay attention to (maybe then, the twists won’t seem so obvious) – to see that even at 80, McKellan can be devilish and clever and fun, and that Mirren can more than keep up – and when given the chance – deliver a knockout punch.