The Good Liar (2019)

Directed by: Bill Condon | 110 minutes | crime, drama | Actors: Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Ian McKellen, Russell Tovey, Jim Carter, Mark Lewis Jones, Laurie Davidson, Phil Dunster, Lucian Msamati, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Tunji Kasim

As long as it doesn’t happen to you in real life, it’s wonderful to see a scammer in action. What smooth talk, devious tricks and clever means does he use to get what he wants. Where ‘he’ is you can of course also read ‘she’, but the fact is that most scammers are men. Also in the movie. It is truly a pleasure to watch a skilled con man in action, such as George Roy Hills ‘The Sting’ (1973) with Paul Newman and Robert Redford in starring roles. Leonardo Di Caprio is also memorable as master con artist and counterfeiter Frank Abagnale Jr. in Steven Spielberg’s modern classic ‘Catch Me If You Can’ (2002). And what about the hustle and bustle of hustler Fast Eddie (Newman again) in ‘The Hustler’ (1961)? And sometimes a scammer gets tough resistance, as in the twice filmed ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’. ‘The Good Liar’ (2019), a film by Bill Condon, who we know, among other things, from the film adaptations of ‘Gods and Monsters’ (1998; he received an Oscar for the screenplay), ‘Kinsey’ ( 2004), the last two ‘Twilight’ films and the live-action adaptation of the animated classic ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (2017). He often writes the screenplays for his films himself, but this time he left it to Jeffrey Hatcher, with whom he previously wrote ‘Mr. Holmes’ (2015) made. Hatcher adapted the novel ‘The Good Liar’ by Nicholas Searle into a screenplay, in which everything revolves around an ancient con man who thinks he can make an easy blow at a peer, but comes home from a bad fair.

Major assets in ‘The Good Liar’ are the two main protagonists, two great names of British cinema: Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Ian McKellen. Lauded and loved by both connoisseurs and the general public. They had never been seen together in a movie before, until now. McKellen plays Roy Courtnay, an eighty-year-old who has been messing things up all his life. Through a dating site, he meets the spry 70-something Betty McLeish (Mirren), who is in need of some company. After a few dates, Roy sees in her a perfect victim to pick a lot of hair. Especially when he discovers that she has quite a few savings. He enlists his partner in crime Vincent (Jim Carter, another fine British character actor) to carry out the plan. However, Betty’s grandson Stephen (Russell Tovey, is doing very well among all those chastened clappers) is suspicious of his grandmother’s new boyfriend from the first minute and warns her not to do business with Roy. Roy obviously doesn’t care about that and supposedly moves in with Betty to take her in permanently. The apparently naive Betty seems to be gardening with butter and sugar, but looks can be deceiving. During a trip to Berlin, relations are shaken up.

A bit of a seasoned movie viewer will feel after ten minutes that ‘The Good Liar’ could be a case of ‘The impostor’ being cheated. So once the twists are pulled out of the hat, it won’t come as much of a surprise to them. What cannot be predicted is the motive, which is unfortunately artificial and far-fetched. The flashbacks in which things are explained are actually very distracting; McKellen and Mirren are not in the picture and they are the main attraction of this film. Even if this isn’t the best material these two institutions of British filmmaking have worked with – by no means – it’s still a joy to see McKellen and Mirren in action. They clearly enjoy their roles. Mirren already shows with certain looks and body language that she has more to offer than she wants us (and Roy) to believe and McKellen scheming and concocting his nefarious plans that it is a sweet heart, not knowing that he is about to to put the lid on his nose. Because the film follows a familiar pattern, the surprise of the twist is disappointing and cinematically ‘The Good Liar’ is almost colorless. But this film is certainly not boring; That’s what the actors, especially McKellen and Mirren, who don’t shy away from using bloody violence and cursing like a boatman, do!