Helen Mirren‘s presence in the cast is reason enough to make me watch a movie. The English actress is part of that category of artists that give light and expressiveness to each role she undertakes. She is smart and beautiful, and her inner beauty just seems to become more evident with the passage of time. ‘The Good Liar‘ directed by Bill Condon is no exception. Whenever she is present on the screen, Helen Mirren lives with elegance and sensitivity the character, in this film the retired university professor Betty McLeish, a fresh widow fighting loneliness, somewhat naive and because of this the potential victim of sentimental or financial scams. Mirren is neither a queen nor a super-spy or police commissioner in this film, this role may not be one of his memorable roles, but she melts into it with great elegance and care to details. Her presence on the screen is also the only one of the promises of this film that fully meets expectations.
To Helen Mirren and her heroine the replica is given in ‘The Good Liar‘ by Ian McKellen as Roy Courtnay. Apparently at least we are dealing with one of those con men aged in scams, frauds and other similar crimes, but full of charm and with which viewers cannot resist identifying themselves, not to a small extent due to the fact that their roles are played by formidable actors who have long since passed the retirement age. Betty seems to be the typical victim for Roy, and his plans will soon become apparent. Surprises expect however Roy and the viewers. Everyone lies in this movie, from the first meeting, a kind of ‘blind data’ between two senior citizens, set up with the help of the Internet and where the two begin by introducing to each other with false names. ‘The Good Liar‘ is, among other things, a film about the art of lying.
The premises are good and the relaxed atmosphere in which the film begins and continues for a good part of the screening time may have been the most appropriate for the subject. From a certain moment, however, ‘The Good Liar‘ leaves the comfort zone of the films about old charming scammers and about the love stories that are flourishing at old age. The intrigue already filled with unexpected twists becomes even more complicated and temps to become dramatic with references to a past full of skeletons in closets. The action takes place in 2009 and the heroes had time to live through adolescence and youth in the years of World War II. The problem is that the serious part of the story not only breaks the rhythm and the atmosphere of an action film with comical and sentimental nuances, but it is also complicated in my opinion non-credible. Maybe a director like Hitchcock or Polanski could have pulled something more tense and believable from this story but Bill Condon is neither Hitchcock nor Polanski, and ‘The Good Liar‘ will only be remembered by me as just another movie with Helen Mirren.