Lies We Tell

It's almost a shame ... there are many things here that I did like ... but then it also has a lot of things that make your skin crawl too. Jumping from too easy to the expected .. to the almost ridiculous. Evil can be seen as pure evil ... and then there is comically evil too.

Acting wise there are some really good performances, some of the things the script really lets the actors down though. Quite the shame as I already said. I'd wish there was more of Harvey Keitel in this too, but you can't get everything you want all the time, now can you?

(2017) Lies We Tell CRIME DRAMA

It's like, you look at a poster of acting greats Gabriel Byrne and Harvey Keitel, and you are thinking that perhaps that it's not going to be a bad movie, and then as soon as you watch it, Harvey Keitel is not even there very long. As the Harvey Keitel character was nothing more, but part of the set up between the eventual relationship of Byrne and Keitel's mistress, played by Sibylla Deen.

Donald (Gabriel Byrne) is a long time faithful chauffeur for philanthropist, Demi Lampross (Harvey Keitel). And as soon as Demi dies of natural causes, he leaves Donald instructions of how to dispose of his expensive flat before he resides to a farm. Except that upon of his arrival, Demi's mistress, Amber (Sibylla Deen) shows up as she begins to make herself more comfortable. And at first, they both got off on a bad note, but as soon as the movie moves along, they become more acquainted with one another. We also get to know more a little more about Donald, such as he used to be married but got split up as a result of a death of their daughter. And as far as Amber is concerned, that she is Pakistan who lives with her family and that both her parents, despite living in the UK also practice the culture as well, as she has a 16 year old sister, who is being set up to be married to Amber's ex, Nathan (Reece Ritchie) who makes a living as a drug dealer and criminal. And for some odd reason, Donald unknowingly gets involve with Amber's personal affairs even though he has problems of his own.

To read about the Pakistan culture is more entertaining then watching this movie, as it does not end on a good note if police are never involved, as if it involves harming others is not tolerated in the UK no matter what religion is practiced.

This film is predicated on a very parochial premise, which could have redeemed itself if the humanism had a more profound portrayal. I found the plot and dialogue adolescent and the film was too boring to sit through. There was an ongoing presumption that the audience would have a cultural knowledge of Pakistanis in England, which left me feeling both bewildered and annoyed. The scenes were poorly linked and so much dialogue was either unbelievable or irrelevant to the story.

My feeling is that the entire story was executed by a director with good intentions but a shallow and tired premise of the cultural problems of a woman attempting to transcend cultural boundaries. The pathos failed to draw real emotion and minimal comedy could have been explored more. This movie is a waste of time and money.

Thought this was going to be an action thriller based on the photo and it seemed to have promise with the cast, but about 45 minutes in with little plot development, mediocre sound and no subtitles, I fast forwarded and then watched the last 10 minutes. Not the best script but the actors did what they could with what they had to work with. Good costumes and cultural references though.

This is one of those movies that looks great on paper, an intelligent idea, a Movie worth doing, an idea and purpose worth pursuing. So you get two very good or great actors to make sure it works, Harvey and Gabriel and they do their best but the movie/script just does not work, it comes across too boring. I like both these actors but if the script and pace of a movie is all wrong then the finished article is too.