White Lies

Have watched this several times on cable, had never heard of it and was pleasantly surprised. Sarah Polley is a very good and appealing actor and her character in this movie is fascinating. The movie is shocking at first by attacking the closed mindedness of the liberal orthodoxy of thought at universities today and the oppurtunists that use charges of racism to squelch dissent. Catherine Chapman thinks and says many things early in the movie that many people think secretly but are afraid to say for being branded, this is highly unusual for any film these days to face reality head on like this.

Unfortunately, this courage dwindles at the end and the producers of the movie play to the grandstand like all mainstream movies do and create cartoonish, reprehensible, easy to hate skinhead nazis as bad guys and Catherine repents. How disappointing, I wish the movie had continued to explore the gray areas of racial politics, where what is 'right' is not so clear as when nazis are involved, but rather there are intelligent people who have a legitimate argument against an entrenched political correctness and have a right to be heard without fear of being treated like pariahs by the establishment.

The beginning of the film 'White Lies' was surprising to me, because you don't often watch North-American films with political racism as the theme. The psychology of the shy main character was described well, the rhythm of the film was good, and original with a sound-track that seemed to come from a 1970's film.

But, then, the second half was disappointing, as the film came into the domain of "Hollywood Nazism" and, like some others comments said, cartoon characters. The sentimental and pathetic ending of the film doesn't do much good to it.

A study on how intellectual people, e.g. at college and university, can be attracted by extreme-right ideology, as it was at the beginning of the film, could have been more interesting

I loved this movie because it shows how easy it is for a person, anyone-even me, can get caught up in something without realizing it. I saw it (the first time) by accident, it just came on the channel I was watching and I got "sucked in". But since then, I've watched it several times and each time, it's like I can't change the channel, it is that engrossing. Well, that's all I wanted to say. This movie is awesome!!!!!!!

I loved it.. it wasn't shallow, it was deep. It made me think, even the day after. Somehow, there are few really good movies that makes you think, often they're just too theatrical and shallow and doesn't seem real at all. Another great movie I'd like to recommend is 'a simple plan' with for example Bridget Fonda and Bill Paxton. If you haven't seen 'White lies': give it a try! And Sarah Polley was really really great.

Sarah Polley is excellent in this admirable TV movie. Her Catherine is a memorable performance. Her acting skill is so amazing, sometimes it is disconcerting, as when she turns the tables on a government official holding the anti-racism portfolio and you find yourself rooting for a neo-Nazi! The film is generously endowed with many extreme closeups of that amazing face that is able to show so much with so little obvious "acting."