Separate Lies
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Movie Reviews of Separate Lies
Movie Review: TO TELL THE TRUTH
Summary: 3 Stars
SEPARATE LIES marks the directorial debut of actor Julian Fellowes; it is a dark, slow moving drama that ultimately ends up being a character study about love, infidelity, truth and forgiveness.
Oscar nominees Tom Wilkinson (IN THE BEDROOM) and Emily Watson play a well to do couple with a flat in London and a beautiful country home in Wales. He's a successful solictor; she is the wife who wants to please him at the cost of her own happiness. When the husband of their housekeeper is killed by a hit and run driver, events are set in motion that will change their lives.
The movie doesn't have enough suspense to be a thriller, but it does examine what one might do to protect a loved one and/or their reputation. Wilkinson and Watson are superb in their roles, both showing a wide range of conflicting emotions. Rupert Everett, looking rather ill, does a good job in his underplayed role of their neighbor William Buell.
SEPARATE LIES is not a great film by any means; it's lethargic and the second half meanders a lot. But it's worth seeing for the finely honed performances of its stars.
Movie Review: JULIAN FELLOWES, OPUS 1
Summary: 3 Stars
*** 2005. Written and directed by Julian Fellowes, this film is an adaptation of Nigel Balchin's A way through the wood. A seemingly happy couple's life is turned upside down when Anne hits a cyclist while driving the car of her lover Bill Bule. I personally consider Emily Watson as one of the best actresses of the last twenty years, so I simply had to see SEPARATE LIES. The film is not a masterpiece but is still enjoyable thanks to the actors's performance. And, while watching the film, you can also imagine Italian or Hispanic actors playing the main characters (very funny). Already forgotten.Movie Review: Able melodrama
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a fine film in many ways. The acting is superb, and so is the camera work. The shots in Wales are stunning. The script is good....until the last fifteen minutes or so. Writer-Director Fellowes simply lacked a believable or even interesting ending. The entire script collapses into soap opera, leaving sensible viewers frustrated. What could have been a magnificent movie turns out to be mere tv network melodrama.Movie Review: An Uninteresting Soap Opera
Summary: 2 Stars
Wilkonson and Watson are both great actors; I always love watching them. This movie, though, is dreadful.
This movie doesn't fail in the performance of the actors; it fails in its story. Movie audiences need a protagonist they can empathize with, but it's very difficult to understand how Wilkonson's character, James, tolerates as much from his wife as he does. Anne explains to her husband why she has her affair, but that's all it is for the audience, exposition--we see nothing that makes her the least bit sympathetic or understandable. You get the feeling the the filmmaker is trying to be fair to her, kind, even, but she comes off as whiny and self-centered--and not in ways that are interesting.
Because Watson's character is so uttery unlikeable--and Everett's, too--James becomes a frustrating and arguably an unlikeable character in his passivity.
The movie is described as supenseful on the DVD box, but it wasn't. There is no mystery here, only melodrama. Low, soap-opera melodrama. There is no sense of inner complexity to these characters, only the unhappiness they experience when they don't get what they want.
Movie Review: Slow And Plodding
Summary: 2 Stars
While the plot premise is interesting, a cheating wife protected from criminal exposure by her loyal husband despite the wife refusing to give up her paramour, this movie moved at a snail's pace and the actors seemed uncommitted and cold. The cast was adequate, but direction seemed passionless. It was not an enjoyable movie experience.