The Good Liar (2019)
Directed by Bill Condon
Career con man Roy sets his sights on his latest mark: recently widowed Betty, worth millions. And he means to take it all. But as the two draw closer, what should have been another simple swindle takes on the ultimate stakes.
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After Roy and Betty catch a showing of Inglourious Basterds (which places the film in 2009 and, yes, that matters), she objects to its fictionalization of World War II.
They click quite nicely and there are further dates, including a screening of Inglourious Basterds , which Roy finds unsettling due to its rewriting of history.
They watch Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds , and the two have a cordial debate about whether the film’s ahistorical representation poisons the minds of the young.
The Good Liar relies on lengthy flashbacks to fill in the details of its characters, spread across decades encompassing post-war Berlin (look closely at the title sequence) up to 2009 (perhaps only used to squeeze in a thematic reference to Inglourious Basterds ?).
The following scene has them taking in a screening of Quentin Tarantino’s revisionist history lesson Inglourious Basterds of all things, one of many semi-subtle clues foreshadowing a progressive tightening of the suspense that underlies the entire film.
On their first night out together after meeting on a dating site for widowed septuagenarians (OK Boomer?), Roy Courtnay (Ian McKellen) and Betty McLeish (Helen Mirren) take in a screening of “Inglourious Basterds” at a London cinema.
In the meantime, there are a few things to chew on, mainly the stirring score by the great Carter Burwell (“Carol,” “No Country for Old Men”) and the undeniable talents of Mirren and McKellen, who stitch the film together through subtle, skillful glances and gestures.
The composer doesn’t get talked about as much as his showier peers, but he wrote one of the finest film scores of the decade, for 2015’s “Carol.”
“The Good Liar” is adapted from Nicholas Searle’s 2016 novel (the script is by Jeffrey Hatcher), and it has been directed, by the gifted and eclectic Bill Condon (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Kinsey,” two “Twilight” films, “Gods and Monsters,” “Dreamgirls”), as a delectably clever and civilized entertainment that invites us to be as invested in the game as we are in the characters.
“The Good Liar” was directed by Bill Condon , who is best known for such tony adult-oriented projects as “ Gods and Monsters ,” “ Kinsey ” and “ Mr. Holmes ” as well as a side gig working on musical extravaganzas like “Dreamgirls,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “ The Greatest Showman .”
Directed by Bill Condon (“Kinsey,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Dreamgirls”) and adapted from Nicholas Searle’s 2016 novel, “The Good Liar” has the polish that you would expect from all involved, but little of the sparkle.
Bill Condon ha demostrado ser un director flexible y maleable; a pesar de haber acariciado el género de fantasía varias veces -para muestra está La bella y la bestia (2017) o las partes 1 y 2 de Crepúsculo: Amanecer (2011 y 2012)-, el cineasta neoyorquino tiene una fascinación por la teatralidad (explorada en su guion de Chicago) y por los dramas íntimos ( Gods and Monsters , 1998; Kinsey , 2004).
The combination of Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen (acting for the first time together in the film) seems like a fool-proof combination, especially in the hands of director Bill Condon (who has worked with McKellen on Gods and Monsters, Mr. Holmes, and even the recent live-action version of Beauty and the Beast; he also directed Kinsey and Dreamgirls).