“Bet they thought they were going to get away with it, huh?”
Sam
A dour, icy thriller in which an estranged couple is drawn into a rapidly expanding lie to protect their daughter, The Lie has an atypical focus on the family dynamic rather than the investigation of the central crime. The emotional impact of guilt, complicity and protectiveness are seen primarily in Enos and Sarsgaard’s performances, whilst Joey King has little opportunity to demonstrate range with a character who seems to have shut down for most of the film. The cinematography imbues The Lie with a sense of chilly isolation, its desaturated palette leaning toward blues and greys. The tension still relies on there being a risk of exposure, which is where The Lie breaks down as characters repeatedly make unfathomable decisions while law enforcement’s progress seems entirely fortuitous. It is adapted from the German film Wir Monsters, so it is difficult to determine where responsibility lies for its narrative failures — the sort of lazy writing that uses a missing person’s mobile phone records as a key plot point but seems to forget that any other character also carries a phone. Wherever the fault lies, it robs The Lie of credibility and engagement.
5/10
