The Good Liar (2019)
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The Good Liar Movie Review
The Good Liar is a 2019 crime thriller film directed by Bill Condon and starring Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren. It’s an implausible and silly, but incredibly entertaining flick.
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“You mean the anticipation,
followed by the letdown?“
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Career con artist Roy Courtnay can hardly believe his luck when he meets well-to-do widow Betty McLeish online. As Betty opens her life and home to him, Roy is surprised to find himself caring about her, turning what should be a cut-and-dry swindle into the most treacherous tightrope walk of his life.
Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock are some of the biggest influences when it comes to this particular movie, and I found that mix excellent and hugely entertaining. This film shows old people for once as competent, actually dangerous and calculated, dynamic people. In Hollywood where older actors and actresses get so little opportunities, this movie was a gold mine, and I hope it inspires more to come.
Yes, both of these famous actors killed it here, which was to be expected. But they certainly should have received much more attention than they got. Helen Mirren is wonderful at portraying this at first innocent seeming woman who later is revealed to be anything but such. Whether playing innocence, pain or anger, she excelled at all of it.
The same should be said for Ian McKellen who continues to be one of the most underappreciated actors when it comes to the Academy who had previously snubbed him for ‘Mr. Holmes’, also directed by Bill Condon. Here, he plays the titular great liar stupendously, and also a genuinely creepy man who would do anything to succeed in life and get away with crime.
The interactions between the two are a lot of fun, and Russell Tovey as her “grandson” is also terrific, and I was glad to see him here as well, though the inclusion of black and gay people into the ending felt like a to-do list of political correctness instead of feeling like a necessity.
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The Good Liar is excellent in its first half as it’s so thrilling and intense in crime elements, but also genuinely strong in build-up as a mystery. Though its twist was to be expected, it felt quite unexpected in its details, and mostly I liked it.
However, the whole Nazi Germany subplot, though engaging, was way too convenient, especially in the minutiae of details emerging throughout. It felt beyond implausible, and frankly even silly to be taken seriously. But still, that led to it being immensely involving to follow, and genuinely fun. The movie is also very well paced, solidly utilized in its flashbacks, and solidly shot, directed and written in dialogue. But the screenplay should have been more believable.
The Good Liar is utterly implausible in its twist ending, especially its many frankly very silly details, but it’s undeniably engaging and incredibly fun to watch as this very cool, superbly acted Alfred Hitchcock/Agatha Christie mash-up that for once portrays older people as genuinely competent and even dangerous.
