Separate Lies
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Movie Reviews of Separate Lies
Movie Review: I am so taken by Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson's performances!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was so thrilled to that Emily Watson is starring in a dramatic film again, especially it's writen by the writer who penned Gosford Park which also starred Watson. I have been a loyal fan of her since her Oscar-nominated Breaking the Waves, and loved her other works include her second Oscar-nominated Hilary and Jackie and Angela's Ashes. After viewing this film, she has impressed me beyond her previous performances and I hope this film put her on the Oscar nomination list along with her equally brilliant and compelling costar Tom Wilkinson!
This is an excellent film about a couple dealing with failing marriage, infidelity, accidental hit-and-ran crime, lies, and reconcilation. It's a very well writen suspense drama with plenty of heavy emotional and tender moments and a few sudden funny moments. The plot of the film surrounds four characters primarily and most of the scenes are meticulously rendered with top-notched acting and dialogues. It's certainly the most enjoyable film about infidelity and failing marriage I have seen since Unfaithful.
On the surface, James(Wilkinson) and Anne Manning(Watson) looked like the perfect married couple except they don't have any children but an adorable little dog. He's a successful and powerful business man, and she's a devoted and loving housewife who is submissive at all time to him. Well, beneathe all that, she's discontended emotionally and sexually. She's unhappy to constantly have to please her husband and it's never been about what she needs or wants. When a handsome newly divorced carefree and wealthy neighbor Bill/William Bule(Rupert Everette) enter the picture, it became the perfect opportunity for Anne to find happiness and pleasure secretly.
Things start to unravel when Anne and Bill were involved in a hit-and-ran accident that claimed the life of her housekeeper Maggie's(Linda Bassett) husband. At this point, Anne had to bring herself to a full confession to the unsuspecting James. This is where the two leads delivered the most intense and gripping moment of the film. It suddenly got very funny when Anne told James," Yes, I f*** Bill. No, I mean, Bill f*** me." Then he rushed to open the kitchen door and simultaneously vomitted as a result of the shock. He would never imagined his wife could treat him that way and be so secretive about it. And yet, he never brought himself to release his anger by getting physical at her, he reluctantly had an affair with his secretary.
James, Anne, and Bill would eventually have to deal with Maggie who told the police that Bill was responsible for the crime without knowing that Anne was the driver in the car that day. Since Maggie was so grateful that Anne had hired her years ago despite her past criminal record, she was willing to forgive her for the accident. Now, everything seemed to have fallen into pieces, and how will James save his marriage and become a good husband to his remorseful and volatile wife.
The supporting performance from Linda Bassett was very good. I was not that impressed with the underexposed Rupert Everett whom I thought should have done a few cheating scenes with Watson. His lazy and careless character is not that sympathetic even when he got very ill. I am not convinced that could be the reason that Anne gave herself into his arms in the first place. Tom Wilkinson once again proves that he can take on all kinds of roles, good and evil, In The Bedroom, Girl With a Pearl Earring, Batman Begins, and The Exorcism of Emily Rose to name the examples. His role in this film is highly likeable, because he was willing to forgive and change to make things work at the most chaotic circumstances. The moment when he waited for Anne on a rainny night outside of Bill's apartment and told her that he wanted to be a better man and her to think of him was so touching to me. This might just be the perfect date movie for the grownups, and it's a must-see for the best performances of the year!
Movie Review: The Ensemble Effect
Summary: 5 Stars
Nigel Balchin's maze-like novel 'A Way Through the Wood' has been adapted by Julian Fellowes who also directs this 'terribly British' drawing room suspense piece. It is a film whose effect relies on the cast portraying the varyingly benign/malignant characters and it is here that Fellowes' directorial choices are superb. The story has a linear line that is easy to follow, but the beauty of the film is the metamorphosis of each player as a single incident ignites a minefield of disasters.
James Manning (Tom Wilkinson) is a successful business obsessed solicitor in London, married to Anne (Emily Watson) who needs more in her life: the couple being childless live in the country in a beautiful estate, assisted by their long term 'cleaner' Maggie (Linda Bassett). They attend social outings and meet, among others, William Bule (Rupert Everett), the passively lazy wealthy neighbor. Anne decides they should entertain their neighbors and against gruff James' protestation Anne proceeds with planning: James arranges to 'not attend due to business'. On the night of the party there is a hit and run accident in which Maggie's husband is accidentally killed by someone in a Range Rover (she observed). When James returns home he sees a scratch on William's Range Rover and suspects William to be the perpetrator. Anne discourages James from going to the police with the information -'what possible good can it do but ruin Bill's life as a socialite and father and son of an important scion?'. From this first 'lie' the virus spreads: James confronts Bill who talks James out of going to the police, Anne confesses it was she who was driving Bill's Rover and is the one responsible, James convinces Anne to keep it quiet because it would ruin his reputation, Anne confesses she is having an affair with Bill, and the three of them concur that they will stick together on their big lie for the sake of the greater good. Anne eventually succumbs to the guilt of not telling her beloved Maggie that she is the one responsible and Maggie, herself guilty of a previous theft whose life was saved by Anne's mercy to hire her anyway, is the agent who draws the story to its surprising conclusion. Lies begat lies that begat lies, et cetera.
The major impact of this intrigue is the manner in which the isolated tragedy impacts each of the characters involved. Each changes in a dramatic way. Tome Wilkinson gives the finest performance of a career filled with brilliant performances: he is able to say more with his posture and facial expressions than about any actor before the audience today. Likewise the gifted Emily Watson adds yet another fine role to her repertoire as does the surprisingly smarmy Rupert Everett who, despite being yet another wealthy British 'gentleman', gives us a man both arid of spirit and yet ultimately needy. And the always-fine Linda Bassett takes a small role and finesses it making her character quietly central to the chaotic web of lies.
The cinematography by Tony Pierce-Roberts and the musical score by Stanislas Syrewicz add immeasurably to the multiple atmospheres the story encounters. This is ensemble playing at its finest, which always means that the director (Julian Fellowes) has a fine grasp on the piece. The interplay of these fine people makes the dodgy story work very well indeed. Grady Harp, February 06
Movie Review: And just what do you think YOU would do?
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of those films that "grows on you." The more you think about it, the more it offers.
You have to figure that any film that begins with this cast and this director has something to offer. This much talent all in one place could make a movie about a bus tour gone awry something worth watching.
Admittedly at the film's conclusion, I had a feeling of "Now, what was that really all about?" Well, it was all about human nature and introspection.
Though something of a control freak, Manning is a good person who had been cuckolded by the wife he adored and the neighborhood sociopathic heir to the manor. At the end he should have felt all right about leaving her to her fate. But he didn't. Love wins out over logic, as it often does. And whether we agree with him or not, it's his life, isn't it?
And Anne--well, any woman (and probably any man) who has ever fallen under the romantic spell of a sociopath can understand the dilemma she was in. She is admirable in the way that she demands to take responsibility for her own actions and decisions, even against the wishes of those she holds nearest and dearest. She thinks she loves the sociopath because he demands nothing of her, in contrast to her husband whom she feels constantly sets standards she cannot met. She probably mentioned this in her first conversation with Billy Buel, thereby giving him the tool he needed to hook her.
One of the easiest characters to overlook is Maggie, who has the golden opportunity for revenge against the person who once did her so great a wrong, then has to weigh that against the pain she will cause the one person who changed her fate for the better.
In all the well-constructed morass of tangled emotions and motives in this film, Billy the sociopath is actually the surprising safe haven for the viewer. He lives only for himself, and he lacks a single redeeming quality, so we can hate, hiss and boo him to our heart's content. Thanks, Rupert Everett, for doing so well the very tough job of portraying a souless individual as souless.
This is a very fine film--a good story portrayed by a great group of cinema professionals. It's also a reminder that life in the gray area can be the toughest life of all.
Movie Review: To tell the truth . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
This film has been marketed as a thriller, but while it may induce some anxiety about the eventual welfare of its characters, it is really a morality tale about the ironies of doing the right thing. In this case, doing the wrong thing is shown in time to serve a greater good than obeying the strictures of a black and white moral code, in which confessing guilt is clearly preferred to lying about culpability.
The twists and turns of this story, as characters maneuver to avoid repercussions following the hit-and-run killing of a bicyclist, are compounded by a discovery of marital infidelity. Husband, wife, and lover become enmeshed in an intrigue to keep the police and the victim's wife from learning the truth of what happened. The resulting conflicts and counter-conflicts are cleverly explored, while the three less-than-honorable characters eventually win a measure of our sympathies.
Unexpectedly saved from the consequences of their mendacity, they have yet a further stage of resolution to pass through. What seems the conclusion of the story is only the end of the second act. And the film then moves onward in a way meant to redeem the characters and bring home its point, that as in a court trial, guilt and innocence are two ways of looking at the same body of evidence.
Movie Review: A Very English Betrayal
Summary: 5 Stars
This perfect little film, similar in style to a Claude Chabrol, could equally well be performed on stage, but its atmosphere is enhanced by shots of the beautiful Hampshire village (it was mostly filmed in Hambledon) in which Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson live a seemingly idyllic married life. The betrayal and the moral dilemmas that accompany it, are resolved only by selfless love. Wilkinson is perfect playing a character facing the agonies of choice more usually faced by women, and Emily Watson is brilliant at retaining our sympathy - despite her seemingly inexplicable passion for the odious Rupert Everett. Nigel Balchin's original book, 'A Way Through The Wood' was a small masterpiece and this is a masterly film.