Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Russell Tovey, Johannes Haukur Johannesson, Jim Carter, Mark Lewis Jones, Lily Dodsworth-Evans, Phil Dunster, Michael Culkin, Laurie Davidson, Celine Buckens, Dino Kelly, Aleksander Jovanovic, Stella Stocker, Nell Williams, Bessie Carter, Patrick Godfrey.

In a world looking for companionship and love, the warning of not trusting those who advertise on-line has perhaps never been more acute, more relevant. The older we get, the more it is possible to see the depth of our footprints in the sands of time and for those who might take the plunge in holding a hand out for that special someone, you have to ask, have we walked the path where my footprints lay, together before.

The older you get, the more secrets you have, and as The Good Liar openly explores, sometimes those secrets are not ones that can stand the light of day, even after 60 years hidden away.

It is perhaps in war that the secrets of the mind are at their most devastating, the odd remark spoken in jealousy or fear can leave a series of notches in the rope of truth in which to hang you as you come closer to the point of the terminal breath; for a generation skewed in their thoughts by war, by the horrors of World War Two, such ghosts that are the mothers of lies, have a way to bite down hard, to come back in the form of one wronged.

The film, whilst accordingly centred upon Helen Mirren’s and Ian McKellen’s characters, would not have worked as well as it does without the superb support of Russell Tovey or the impeccable Jim Carter adding to the deception of the piece. There must also be room in any film for the introduction of a character who serves as the vessel of discovery, the one person whose moment in the story serves as the warning of what can happen when someone is pushed to take drastic measures. In Mark Lewis Jones, the character of Bryn is perhaps the most poignant, the sense of the imminent catching up with the inevitable; time’s thought on decay and the measure in which we owe the debt to the past by destroying the future., it is one played to absolute perfection.

Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren make an intriguing pairing, one no doubt driven by their time working for the R.S.C., their sense of timing is second to none and in The Good Liar it is possible to understand, to insist upon, that their theatrical time has been working towards this moment on screen, one of abundance, of complexity, sincere, compelling drama. A film of consequence, a narrative that is bold but also generous to the viewer; The Good Liar is a storyteller’s delight.

Ian D. Hall