The Good Liar (2019) Review!!

Synopsis – Consummate con man Roy Courtnay has set his sights on his latest mark: the recently widowed Betty McLeish, worth millions. But this time, what should have been a simple swindle escalates into a cat-and-mouse game with the ultimate stakes.

My Take – It is hard to imagine how and why two of Britain’s greatest acting legends, Dame Helen Mirren (74) and Sir Ian McKellen (80), in their long spanning career, never appeared together on screen before. In that sense at least, we should thank director Bill Condon for making this happen in the form of this pulpy new retiree thriller based on the novel of the same name by author Nicholas Searle.

The film also happens to mark a reunion of sorts for McKellen and director Condon, who worked together on the Oscar nominated Gods and Monsters (1998), followed it up by the aged Sherlock story, Mr. Holmes (2015), and Disney‘s live action billion dollar film, Beauty and the Beast (2017). Unfortunately this time around they are let down by the script.

For a subject based on con, you expect a certain amount of deception, but here, despite a promising start the film ends up tying itself into intricate knots and skids around several yawning plot holes, until it finally pulls the brakes in its climax by revealing a shocking twist, which doesn’t feel much earned. That’s not to say that the adaption is devoid of charm.

As expected, it boasts of terrific performances, with Mirren and McKellen bring out the best in each other. Their characters smash the condescending narrative about ageing and makes a fools out of those who think otherwise. And there is no doubt that two screen legends can still keep one engaged, no matter the run time.

The story follows Roy Courtnay (Ian McKellen), a career con man, who for years has been prowling London to lure in high-finance marks. Knowing that his growing age makes everyone underestimate him, Roy’s favorite con is to convince rich people to deposit some funds into a joint account, and with the help of his partner-in-crime, Vincent (Jim Carter), drains their savings and makes a run for it.

Forming his latest mark is Betty McLeish (Helen Mirren), a retired Oxford professor and a wealthy widow, who he met online via a dating site for the elderly. Seeing him as fragile and frail, Betty is quickly smitten by Roy, and invites him to move into her suburban life. However, a thorn in the con comes in the form of Steven (Russell Tovey), Betty’s grandson, a history PhD student who immediately distrusts Roy’s backstory and believes their relationship is moving too quickly.

Firstly, it is quite a relief to see a big studio film in 2019 that acknowledges the existence of an elderly audience or any audience that is still interested in stories about older people without any blockbuster tropes. Beyond that, it’s difficult to say much about the film, which comes riddled with double bluffs in a second half that dips quite astoundingly.

Here, director Bill Condon, working from a screenplay by Jeffrey Hatcher, starts off by getting the feel of a landscape rife with double-crossing people by allowing many avenues where deception can fester, translating into painful flashbacks, paired with an increasingly dark tone the further we witness Roy’s backstory.

Honestly, the first two acts had my attention completely, thanks to the humor, the tension, the deception, and the burgeoning relationship that kept me interested. That is until the third act’s shocking scene in a Tube station sends the film off its rails.

I understand, for any film adaptation, jamming a novel’s narrative (in this case 352 pages) into a screenplay can be a daunting challenge, however, here, writer Jeffrey Hatcher isn’t able to get this one to fit. Having not read the novel, I can imagine how author Nicholas Searle must have built Roy’s trap over a couple hundred pages, but in the film, it is almost done in the first thirty minutes.

The film might come as surprising to those who haven’t seen much of Helen Mirren on screen, in the sense, she does not pick up straight faced roles. As a result it is hard to believe Betty’s naive nature even for a minute, and as one who expect, she does convince the supposed master criminal to make some pretty elementary mistakes. And once the reveal has been established, it doubles down on its motivations to a level that becomes nearly ridiculous and uncalled for.

Before that director Bill Condon, adeptly builds suspense and suspicion, flirting with a combination of love story and morality tale, and despite the obvious motivations, keeps its engaging. Hence, the conclusion really left me cold and functioned as a disservice to all of the goodwill the film had garnered with me up until that point.

Yet, even as the story wilts, the performances are a delight to behold. McKellan’s roguish smile, dapper demeanor and Mirren’s steely eyes and regal poker face go a long way in reconciling the preposterous, heavy plotting and clumsy flashbacks. Their chemistry is concrete, and despite having never worked together before, these two classically trained thespians are clearly having fun working together. While the film doesn’t have a whole lot of humor, most of it is provided by this pair and is quite enjoyable.

In supporting roles, Russell Tovey and Jim Carter are also quite adequate, even though they are not given much to do. On the whole, ‘The Good Liar’ is an average con-artist caper which never fully utilizes the potential of its dream casting.