Review: Lies We Tell (2017)

Directed by: Mitu Misra | 109 minutes | crime, romance | Actors: Gabriel Byrne, Sibylla Deen, Mark Addy, Jan Uddin, Reece Ritchie, Gina McKee, Nicholas Farrell, Emily Atack, Harish Patel, Harvey Keitel, Danica Johnson, Manzar Sehbai, Harvey Virdi, Hamish Rush, Aqib Khan, Ambur Khan, Amer Nazir

Gabriel Byrne is a special actor. The Irishman is one of those actors who never seems to star in a movie. He always puts himself in the service of others and seems to feel better more in the lee. In Hereditary, that worked very well when he had to play a mentally absent father, but when he has to play a leading role and wear a film, that obliging attitude doesn’t work. In “Lies We Tell” Byrne has to carry the film, but he fails.

Donald (Byrne) is an honest driver. When his boss, the billionaire Demi, dies unexpectedly, Donald tries to destroy all evidence of his extramarital affairs with a Muslim woman in order to protect the family heritage. However, he does not expect to run into the lady of the house, the beautiful Amber. Despite trying to keep her at bay, he must help her find and destroy a sex video of his boss. He plunges into the dark underworld that leads him to Amber’s cousin, the infamous gangster KD.

“Lies We Tell” has a lot of interesting themes. The Muslim woman who is ignored by her community because of her extramarital relationship, a driver who ends up in a hostile world and who cannot hold her own and an impressive cast: just a number of big plus points for this film. Unfortunately, little is done with these things. In addition, the excessive use of music is very annoying. The movie dictates or tries to dictate your emotions.

The widely announced Harvey Keitel may be prominently featured on the DVD cover, but after a mini-dialogue has disappeared. Byrne is downright pale and the slow pace doesn’t make things any better. “Lies We Tell” is a mediocre film with a swirling course and a crew that gets seasick. Don’t get on the boat and save yourself an entrance ticket.