Friday 20 November 2020

THE GOOD LIAR **


 Once upon a time it would have been unheard of for a movie to get off the ground on the strength of leads whose combined ages totalled one hundred and fifty nine. On the other hand, mention that those leads are Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Helen Mirren and you just might manage to sell it. In "The Good Liar" Sir Ian is an ageing con-man and Dame Helen potentially his next victim, whom he meets on an online dating site and one of the film's pleasures is watching these two great thespians act their little cotton socks off. 

The target audience may indeed be readers of 'The Oldie' but if you dismiss this simply as one for the wrinklies you'd be missing a very enjoyable old-school thriller. Russell Tovey is here to cater for the younger market though you might feel his character is a bit superfluous while director Bill Condon makes great use of locations both in London and Berlin. Unfortunately the plot goes a little off the rails at the end so marks knocked off for that but still nice to see something as old-fashioned as this in 2019.

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