Brilliant Lies

David Williamson has written some very good plays, but even the best of them can't be removed from the stage without wilting. This is not one of the best of them.

To be honest, it feels as though it's been cranked out. "Let me write a play (or script) about ..." Williamson thinks for a moment, fixes on "workplace sexual harassment", starts banging away that very instant at the typewriter, sticks to the scenic formula that's worked so well in the past, throws in a revelation of some kind every few pages, and it's done. The result is not at all brilliant. (Nor are the lies brilliant. Don't expect Baron Münchhausen, is all I'm saying.) Even so, it probably works well enough on stage.

But it's not on stage and it flat as a lilypad. Michael Veitch plays the part of the family Christian who no-one takes seriously in a manner that might also work on stage, but which is embarrassingly cartoony here. (It's possible to count and catalogue his mannerisms.) Principle leads are competent but don't shine. Direction is leaden. Now and then the action moves out of doors or down the corridor - as if that could possibly help matters.

If I were to say that it's boring I might mislead you. Williamson's craft ensures that it's not at all likely to induce sleep, and it's possibly worth watching as a way of passing an hour and a half; but any other film at all, provided it's one that's not positively bad, would serve just as well.

The title, Brilliant Lies, created the obvious expectation of much lying. This was not too satisfying but I was soon rewarded by the uncovering of layers of lies in many areas of the lives of the characters. This conflict of lies and partial truths led to some surprising but plausible resolutions. The acting was excellent and served the plot very well.

Sexual harrassment, and films about it, may be last year's fashion, but it's still a good earner for the lawyers and bureaucrats administering our anti-discrimination laws. In this film, based on a play by David Williamson, Australia's premier commercial playwright, the "victim" manages to do quite well, and the "aggressor" is badly mauled.

Beautiful"victim" Susie Connor (Gia Caridies) comes to sympathetic anti-discrimination agency official Marion (Catherine Wilkin) to complain about the attentions of her handsome but piggish boss Gary (Anthony LaPaglia). She wants $40,000 in compensation. Conciliation is attempted but ends in acrimony. Marion starts to wonder if Susie is telling the truth, or is just a brilliant liar. The movies winds up as courtroom drama, with the truth strangely finding its way out through all the lies.

Interwoven with the legal proceedings is the unravelling of another set of lies and truths involving Susie, her equally beautiful lesbian/feminist sister Katy (Zoe Caridies) and their failed entrepreneur father Brian (Ray Barrett) who is in urgent need of an expensive heart by-pass operation.

It's all a bit like "Disclosure" (Demi Moore/Michael Douglas) meets "On Golden Pond" (the Fondas). Ray Barrett produces an ingratiating old rogue who even tries to persuade us that a little child molesting might not be so heinous, but might in fact stem from love. Anthony LaPaglia plays Gary the go-getter with plenty of suppressed rage and a general air of bewilderment. Gia Carides handles the ambiguity of her role - victim and sexpot - adroitly. Zoe (her sister in real life) does not succeed so well with sister Katy whose lesbianism come across as a lifestyle choice rather than basic sexual orientation. Pick of the performances really is Catherine Wilkin's Marion the anti-discrimination bureaucrat - a measured and fair portrait of a much maligned species.

The script seems a bit flat by Williamson standards. He is justly famous for his dialogue but here only the occasional line stands out. When Susie mentions that she only ever took Ecstacy (the drug) once, Marion remarks "Married women seldom get ecstacy and sex at the same time." There were two other scriptwriters including the director - perhaps that was the problem (I haven't read the play).

A filmed play, really, but an intelligent and moderately entertaining one. It's not likely to change anyone's attitudes - the war between the sexes will rage on regardless.

As you might expect from a movie based on a stage play, this one is relentlessly talky, and the heavy Australian accents create an extra problem, at least if you're not from Down Under. But it's very well-acted (hard to believe LaPaglia and Carides are a real-life couple when you see how convincingly they hate each other here!) and, in its best moments, utterly engrossing; depending mostly on your sex, you may find yourself rooting for either of the two main characters while still having your doubts about him/her. The ending, however, is not very satisfying. (**1/2)

The fabulous Carides sisters combine with a young Anthony La Paglia, a suitably wimpish Michael Veitch and Ray Barrett playing Ray Barrett to sleazy perfection in framing a superbly executed movie exploring sexual tension in the workforce whilst incorporating misogyny, family trauma and an LGBTI angle, albeit in a 1990's mindframe.

Despite a budget seemingly less than the $40,000 harassment/wrongful dismissal claim central to the story, this screen adaptation of David Williamson's play is an engaging insight into the fractious male/female dynamic and how they play their cards to advantage in order to get what they want. The two combatants Susy (Gia Carides) and Gary (Anthony La Paglia) may be married off screen, yet their seething animosity is key to the film's authenticity and ambiguous rendering of who indeed is the most brilliant liar.

My only gripe is the ultimate willingness of sisters Susy and Katy (Zoe Carides) to accept the unforgivable trespasses of their mostly awful father.