Review of the Film: “The Lie”

Blumhouse Productions have produced so many masterpieces in the past, such as Academy Award-nominated films Get Out and BlacKkKlansman, apart from several horror genre blockbusters like Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister, The Purge, Oculus, The Gift, Split, and Halloween. This time they have come up with “The Lie,” which is a part of their “Welcome to the Blumhouse” initiative (a partnership between Blumhouse and Amazon Studios to give a platform to all the emerging diverse filmmakers and artists to showcase their virtuosity).

“The Lie,” as the title suggests, is about deception and how far can you go to hide the truth when somebody from your own family is being held at the knife-edge.

Peter Sarsgaard and Mireille Enos star in this cat and mouse thriller as a couple who went to the extremes to cover the tracks of their 15-year-old daughter who accidentally killed a man.

Veena Sud, famed for being the creator of American crime drama series The Killing, directed the English language remake of a German crime thriller We Monsters.

The film relays the story set in the backdrop of a Canadian winter about the spine-chilling fights of a mother and father who struggle against the questioning police and peeping neighbors in order to protect their beloved child.

The film asks a lot of subliminal questions, one of them being ‘does morality matter when your own child’s fate is at stake?’ and more importantly, it asks parents about ‘how far are they willing to go to protect their children?’

Would you stand behind your daughter when she is about to go to jail for the rest of her life? Would you save her with whatever you got?

Veena Sud wrote a story based on such parents who are willing to break laws, go to jail, or even die for their own child. The film shot in one single home reverberates elements of the film “Fargo” as very tense and confused looking Rebecca (played by Enos), and Jay (played by Sarsgaard) scratch their heads to figure out a way to undo a crime that their daughter had committed. While doing, they descend into insanity, the extent of which is revealed not until the final act of the film. The couple tells a lie and then another and then another until their deceptions pile up, waiting to crumble on them and crush all their hopes and aspirations for their daughter forever. In many instances, the couple finds it impossible to cover up their tracks, and they both feel as if the deceit they have plotted to get out of the situation will ultimately eat them alive.

I liked the pace of the film, which is very fast. Like you can go from one aspect of the film to another within seconds. It never stops for anything, and that is the only criticism I have. I agree that the pace of a feature film is very important, but Veena Sud could have done much more with the film if she had stopped for five minutes and let the parents begin to comprehend the possibility that they might have actually raised a murderer. That thought and its impact on the psychology of the parents and on the overall plot could have done a whole lot of good for the film.

That is not to say that the film isn’t entertaining. It’s a good thriller but lacks the emotional weight it required to crank itself up a notch.

Edward Lewis  is a Microsoft Office expert and has been working in the technical industry since 2002. As a technical expert, Edward has written technical blogs, manuals, white papers, and reviews for many websites such as office.com/setup.

Source : The Lie