The Good Liar

Helen Mirren, Ian McKellan
Russell Tovey, Jim Carter

"Read between the Lies"

In this age of online connectivity, lonely senior citizens have also jumped into the bandwagon of online dating. Some apps are developed to cater to people of a certain age who seek romance, companionship or both. Deceitful scams are the common pitfalls of online dating because you have no idea if the person you are chatting with is real. 

Con artist Ron Courtnay's (Ian McKellan) next target is a wealthy widow named Betty (Helen Mirren) whom he met online. After meeting in a restaurant, they hit if off, and start hanging out together. Stephen (Russell Tovey) is Betty's grandson and he often drops in to check on her. While Vincent (Jim Carter) is Ron's 'sidekick' who would often pose as an attorney when they would scam people into investing in ghost projects. But not so innocent Betty has something up her sleeves and we beg to ask the question: Who is conning who? 

In the beginning, we are invested in the two main characters' lives. It had the potential of being a senior citizen love story but it takes on a very different angle. Stephen takes us on an adventure across Germany, revealing Ron's nefarious life of fraud, identify theft, going far back to his youth as a Nazi soldier. Betty is also hiding a painful, sordid past which comes to fore and completely unravels the direction of the film.

Set in London and its suburbs, with flashbacks to a war torn Germany, the pace is a bit slow as it runs for almost 2 hours. The characters deliver their dialogue clearly. The film is based on a novel and sometimes it felt like I was watching a play at the theater. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but we need more to satisfy our short attention span. Unfortunately, this evolves through side plots which sprout like mushrooms towards the ending. So we are still spinning from the revelation and before we know it, the end credits come up. 

Helen Mirren and Ian McKellan, both great thespians can only do so much given the limiting nature of the plot. Yet they still shine, and they are be the only reason to watch "The Good Liar"  Their experience in this film further enhances the notion that it isn't safe to meet someone online, either for dating, for business or for any other purposes. 

P.S.

I did *meet* my hubby online. 12 years and counting, we are still going strong. No deceit, bribery,  nor fraud was involved. I guess we were,  are lucky. =)