The Good Liar

Even if The Good Liar was a disappointment (fortunately, it's not), it would still be worth watching for the performances of Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen.  Seeing these two actors get to play off each other is one of the great pleasures I've had at the movies all year.  It's always a gamble when you place two big acting talents in the same scene, but it works here.  The way that they display their emotions in such a subtle way is a joy to watch.  They're enjoying this opportunity to share the screen, and the audience enjoys watching it.

The movie itself works largely on how the stars sell this material.  As the title suggests, it is a movie about secrets and hidden pasts.  We know going in that the movie is going to be about deception, and the movie doesn't try to hide it.  McKellen plays Roy Courtnay, a long-time conman who still delights in bilking people out of their money with phony investments or money making schemes that seem too good to be true.  He's been doing it most if not all of his life, and McKellen rightfully plays the part as an old pro who sees no reason to stop or slow down.  On the side, he likes to con elderly widows out of their life-long earnings.  He passes himself off as a lonely man with a bad knee for sympathy, and an adult son that lives in Australia who no longer speaks to him.  He is frail, but still charming.  He allows his persona just enough life to spark interest and hope in the women that he romances and eventually bilks.

His latest mark is Betty (Mirren).  He finds her on a dating site, and the two quickly connect.  They meet for dinner, and from there, the pieces of Roy's scheme seem to fall into place.  He worms his way into her life, and soon her home.  She has a grandson (Russell Tovey), who thinks that Betty might be trusting this man a bit too quickly, but she always ignores his concerns, saying that Roy is the first person who has made her happy in a long time.  This is just how Roy planned it as well.  Of course, things will eventually begin to turn.  How and why I will not say, but it's fairly easy to figure out that by the end of the film, we will be asking ourselves just who the "Good Liar" of the title truly is.  We know from the start that it's Roy, but by the end, we're not so sure.  It could be almost everyone who walks on the screen by the end.

In all honesty, I would have preferred it if The Good Liar had let its secrets and revelations unravel themselves slowly and during the course of the film.  Instead, they're all kind of lumped together in a few key scenes.  I like it better when movies slowly pass out the information, rather than dropping it in our laps all at once.  Regardless, this is still a delight to watch, with solid direction by Bill Condon (2017's live action Beauty and the Beast remake), and a script that might not be as clever as it thinks it is, but is still filled with some wonderful individual scenes for its two stars to work with.  Again, seeing McKellen and Mirren tackle these roles is a lot of the fun of this movie.  They play just the right angle for all the sides of their characters.  We see them act shy toward each other, and gradually warm up, until perhaps Roy is letting his guard down just a little when he is around Betty.  He never loses sight of why he's with her, but we kind of wish that they would actually get together, as they're so good in their scenes together.

This is the kind of movie where you savor the performances and how the film has been made, rather than the surprises of the plot.  We know that there will be some big revelations to come, but that's not what holds our attention for its running time.  It is the performances, which are fascinating to watch, as well as the dialogue.  The movie creates a kind of calculating tension in how there is always a somewhat sinister undertone to all of the scenes that its two stars share.  We know this, and the movie is kind of masterful in how it handles the air of danger that constantly hangs over its leads.  We know that Roy is capable of horrible things.  We get to witness this in a crucial scene in a subway tunnel.  The next time we see him with Betty after that, we fear for her.  The pressure and tension mounts until the incidents pile up on each other, and must inevitably come crashing down in the film's climactic moments, and everything is revealed.

The Good Liar is not a classic crime thriller, but it is a tremendous amount of fun.  I knew that I was not getting all the answers for most of the movie, but I never felt frustrated, because I was enjoying the performances so much.  This is a film designed to tease, but fortunately, it has more on its mind than just pulling the rug out from under us.  It also gives us some strong characters in the center of it all, and some wonderful individual moments that adds up to a satisfying movie.

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