Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Good Liar (2019)

This is topic The Good Liar (2019) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-17-2019, 10:16 PM:

My wife and I were in Layton, UT for a convention and she suggested seeing this movie during a break in the festivities. Neither of us had ever heard of it, but anything with Helen Mirren and Ian McLeland has to be good, right?

It turned out to be a potent thriller about a guy (McLeland) who preys upon people to establish a relationship with them and eventually empty their bank accounts. He befriends Helen Mirren, gives her the whole spiel and she takes the bait...or does she?

What ensues wouldn't really quality as "wackiness" but the story takes several twists and turns before arriving at a few surprises in the last reel. Said ending, while not exactly unexpected, is delivered in a pretty satisfying way.

Helen Mirren is probably the best of the cast...has she ever given a bad performance? Ian McLeland is close behind. The sound mix was appropriately ominous in the right spots, but the overall volume could have been a little louder for my taste. It might have been designed "soft" considering the probable audience for the film. I thought the score was really good.

After we saw the movie, I watched the trailer on my phone. It makes the film look more like a thriller/horror-lite movie, but in reality it's more of a dialogue-heavy film with a plot that unfolds calmly, not with a lot of yelling and screaming the way so many movies do these days.

We both liked it a lot. 3.5 stars from me.

We saw the show in an AMC theater with recline-o-vision seats. Everything was mostly top notch. The picture did appear to have a little soft-focus in the upper corners but it wasn't usually bothersome. Nice and bright otherwise.