REVIEW: The Good Liar

When I saw the title of this film I had no idea it was referring to the editor of the trailer.

A despicable waste of 2 acting legends, The Good Liar stars Sir Ian McKellen as an unremarkable swindler with barely any personality and Helen Mirren as a vacant retiree turned 3rd act twist. It’s easily the laziest written film I’ve seen in 2019, and yes, I saw the Pet Sematary reboot. The words “poorly paced” don’t feel harsh enough to describe the absolute disaster of story structure befalling this mess. There’s not even a modicum of conflict between the leads until the last 30 minutes!

Expecting cat and mouse games? Well sorry buckko! (spoilers) Here’s 2 acts of con artist-y gibberish, a forcefully thrown together WW2 backstory (actually, have 2), and a rape scene done in poor taste to make the whole flick about revenge for some unfathomable reason. Off ya pop!

Most of the aesthetic choices seem totally bizarre. Like, why are the opening credits done entirely with a typewriter when there isn’t a single typewriter in the movie? What are these weird 1980s bank devices used to transfer money between joint accounts? How is this tediously repetitive score BURROWING into my ear holes as I tightly hold them closed for fear of going insane?

The dialogue was often melodramatic to a fault, the rated R aspects felt misplaced/hokey, and from a cinematography perspective it’s DULL AS DIRT!

I honestly have nothing good to say about The Good Liar, except if you do have the misfortune of going to see it, you’ll know exactly what NOT to do when making a thriller starring Sir Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren.

.5/5

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