THE GOOD LIAR : Tuesday 17th December 2019.

I saw 'THE GOOD LIAR' earlier this week, which is an MA15+ rated American crime thriller and is Directed and Co-Produced by the Oscar winning Bill Condon whose previous Directing credits take in the likes of 1987's 'Sister, Sister' (his debut feature film), 1998's 'Gods and Monsters', 2004's 'Kinsey', 2006's 'Dreamgirls', 'The Twilight Saga : Breaking Dawn - Parts 1 and 2', 2013's 'The Fifth Estate', 2015's 'Mr. Holmes' and 2017's Disney's live action remake of 'Beauty and the Beast'. Here Condon collaborates with Sir Ian McKellen for the third time in the male leading role opposite female lead Helen Mirren. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Searle, was released in the UK in early November, in the US in mid-November, and in Australian cinemas at the end of November having taken US$28M off the back of a Production Budget of US$10M, and has garnered mixed or average Reviews along the way so far.

The film opens up with two unconnected ageing people keying in their personal details, likes and dislikes into the same online dating service. It is 2009. Sometime later and a connection has been made, a remote relationship has been established and a rapport has been built. The next step is to meet in person, face to face, and so a date is set over dinner. Here we are introduced to Roy Courtnay (Ian McKellen) and Betty McLeish (Helen Mirren) who have enjoyed a successful first lunch date, during which we learn that Roy's wife passed away three years ago and Betty's husband one year ago. Upon exiting the restaurant, Betty is picked up by her grandson Steven (Russell Tovey) and Roy says he'll catch a train back to his apartment in the city. When Betty is out of view, Roy's friend and colleague Vincent (Jim Carter) picks him up and they drive off together.

As it turns out we quickly discover that Roy is in fact a long term conman who has a successful track record in convincing people to part company with their money off the back of some financial investment scam through deception, creating fake identities and misinformation. Betty is a former Oxford Professor, who has an accumulated wealth of 2.7 million pounds sterling, and as such Roy is practically salivating at the prospect of these easy pickings.

Having spent a day together, Roy puts on a convincing act that he has a dodgy knee, and can barely make it up the stairs to his apartment. Betty takes pity and encourages Roy to stay at her place in the spare room, much to Steven's chagrin, and Betty's disapproval of Steven's mistrust of Roy.

Meanwhile, Roy and Vincent run an investment scam with their mark Bryn (Mark Lewis Jones) and his partner Beni (Lucian Msamati) - using fake Russian investors to part company with UK£800K while the other four each put in a combined UK£200K. The fake Russians however, reneg on the deal as a result of a comment made by Bryn, setting up another meeting at a later date in which Bryn apologises and the four agree to up their investment from UK£50K each to UK£100K as a gesture of their commitment. After the funds are transferred via a sharing of accounts using keypads connected to a bank, and the group are about to toast their success, the meeting is raided by Police leaving Bryn and his colleague to flee the scene. The Police raid is revealed to also be a scam, leaving the group to share the spoils of a UK£200K confidence trick.

One day later on when Roy has seemingly taken up permanent residence in Betty's house, she collapses from a mini-stroke. Her Doctor pays a house visit and says she needs to take it easy, and having suffered a series of these mini-strokes over time, needs bed rest or she could possibly be dead within a year. To aid her recovery, Betty suggests a European holiday taking in Berlin, France and Italy, but kicking off in Berlin. Roy eventually agrees. During the trip, during which time Steven is studying in Berlin and acts as their surrogate tour guide, he speaks in German which Roy seems to understand - and then claims ignorance. Steven takes the couple to a flat that Roy instantly recognises although doesn't let on, and reveals that 'Roy Courtnay' was a young British Army officer who was killed there in 1948 by a Nazi war criminal he was tracking, according to Soviet records. This causes Roy to explain that his real name is/was Hans Taub (Laurie Davisdon), who was Roy's German translator, and that he stole Roy's identity so that he could leave Germany and pass himself off as a British citizen. Betty appears to accept his explanation and dismisses Steven's objections.

Whilst in Berlin, one afternoon when Roy is feeling tired, Betty takes her leave and goes off exploring alone. We see here walk up to an old looking house, that is now a library. Upon her return to the hotel she reveals cuts and grazes to her hands where she seemingly took a fall on a gravel pathway. Roy attended to her bloodied hands, and they agree to return home to England ending their holiday prematurely.

For a while now Roy has been attempting to convince Betty that she should invest some of her money into a sure fire double your money offshore trading account, so that he can secretly scam her out of her life savings. Vincent has been masquerading as Roy's financial advisor and has had several meetings to establish the scam at Betty's home. After returning from Berlin, Roy and Betty plan to transfer their money and to pool their resources into an offshore joint account as recommended by Vincent. Vincent, on the eve of the transfer, suggests to Roy that he should leave at least some of the money for Betty to help with her medical condition, but Roy dismisses the idea and insists that he'll leave Betty financially defrauded just like his previous victims. Vincent reluctantly agrees and the next day bears witness to the couple transferring their money into the joint offshore account, totalling in excess of UK£5M.

As they celebrate their financial union over a glass of champagne, Roy takes a message from his son Robert who is attending a trade fair in London from his home in Australia, and wants to meet with his dad later that evening for dinner. Roy is estranged from his son, disapproving of his lifestyle and the fact that he designs kitchens for a living, but agrees to go and meet his son.

Betty sees Roy off at the train station, and he goes to his apartment and polishes off a bottle of Scotch, with no sign of his son Robert, whom we've worked out by now doesn't really exist. Roy discovers that he no longer has the keypad needed to access their joint account and that he must have left it at Betty's house. He calls the bank seeking to have the funds transferred to another account, but is told that the only way of transferring funds securely is via the keypad, and that the bank will happily dispatch a new keypad but that will take three days to arrive at least. By now Roy is panicking. Roy returns to Betty's house to reclaim it, only to find that the house has been stripped bare of all fixtures and furnishings and Betty waiting for him in a lone armchair in the lounge holding his lost keypad. Betty confronts Roy with the keypad by siphoning off UK£50K into her own private account each time he tells a lie, with the account balance declining rapidly before Roy's very eyes as the untruths come blurting out.

It is at this point that Betty reveals her history to Roy, that including her medical condition, is all fake. Her real name is Lili, and she and Roy have met six decades before as German teenagers in 1943 - when Hans was tutoring her in English. During their last session, however, the fifteen year old Hans raped Lili following a humiliating encounter with her three older sisters a short time earlier. After her parents dismissed Hans from continuing his tutoring lessons, he denounced Lili's father to the German authorities as a traitor for which he was executed for treason - the result of which drove Lili's mother to commit suicide. Following the deaths of their parents, Lili's sisters were killed in an explosion just two weeks before the suicide of Adolf Hitler in a Berlin bunker. After these tragic events, Lili made her own way to England once the war had ended.

Lili goes onto explain that she has been fully aware of his plan to con her out of her savings all along, and how Steven, who is in fact the partner of Lili's real grandson Michael, is quite the private investigator and had managed to track Roy/Hans' criminal history, aided by Lili confirming his identity based on an old locket containing a snippet of Hans' hair and comparing the DNA to a cut of hair she took from Roy, when she was cutting his hair one time. Additionally, she reveals that Vincent had betrayed Roy after being confronted with her knowledge of their crimes, and how as a result, if reported to the authorities, he would languish in jail. A situation that Vincent was understandably keen to avoid. Roy begs for forgiveness and states how much he genuinely loves her. Having transferred all of Roy's money to her own account, Lili prepares to leave the house only for Roy to attack her after locking the door. She manages to ward him off just long enough for her to make a quick phone call alerting Beni and a colleague whom he previously cheated, who were waiting outside. Upon leaving the house, she says that she has left UK£100K in Roy's offshore account, which will reimburse the sum he swindled out of Beni, leaving Roy penniless. Roy is then heard being beaten up by the pair of men.

'The Good Liar' has a plot that is far too convoluted, too complicated and way too detailed to sit within the realms of anything resembling realistic, but is elevated by the noteworthy pairing of McKellen and Mirren whose simple and grounded riffing off each other provides for some moments of levity, emotion and depth that anchors the otherwise implausible cumbersome cat-and-mouse storyline. Ultimately it's a film about buried secrets, lies and deception, revenge and double-cross with moments of unexpected violence thrown in for good measure that for the most part is good fun, but, a far cry from the Hitchcock influences it attempts to emulate. Don't expect too much from this film, and you can easily wait for this one to come along on your small screen streaming service and save yourself the price of cinema entry.

'The Good Liar' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 5th December 2019.

In November, the world bid a fond farewell to a number of stars of the silver screen and the small screen. In brief, shown below, is my passing tribute to those stars who leave an indelible mark on the entertainment industry, and in particular the world of film and television. May you all Rest In Peace, and thanks for the memories . . . . Brian Tarantina, Virginia Leith, William Wintersole, Lawrence G. Paull, Niall Toibin, Branko Lustig and Michael J. Pollard.

* Brian Tarantina - born March 27th 1959, died November 2nd 2019, aged 60. Tarantina was an Actor of the stage, television and cinema who amassed 88 screen acting credits from 1984 appearing in his debut big screen role in 'The Cotton Club' right up to the present day in the recently released 'The Kitchen'. In between time there were big screen roles in the likes of 'The January Man', 'Uncle Buck', 'Born on the Fourth of July', 'Jacob's Ladder', 'Carlito's Way', 'Donnie Brasco', 'Summer of Sam', 'The Talented Mr. Ripley', 'City by the Sea', 'The Brave One', 'Knight and Day' and 'BlacKkKlansman'. There were also one off guest appearances and regular slots on prime time TV shows including 'The Equaliser', 'Miami Vice', 'Spin City', 'Oz', 'NYPD Blue', 'The Sopranos', 'Law & Order', 'Gilmore Girls', 'Heroes', 'The Black Donnelly's', 'The Good Wife', 'Elementary', 'Blacklist', 'Blue Bloods', 'Madam Secretary' and 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'.

* Virgina Leith - born October 15th 1925, died November 4th 2019, aged 94. Leith was an American television and film Actress who had just 26 acting credits to her name, with her most productive period coming in the 1950's. Her debut in 1953 was also the first film directed by Stanley Kubrick, a self-financed art house film, 'Fear and Desire'. She signed a contract with 20th Century-Fox in 1954 and had leading roles in films such as 'On the Threshold of Space', 'Toward the Unknown' with William Holden, 'Violent Saturday' with Victor Mature and 'White Feather' and 'A Kiss Before Dying' both with Robert Wagner. She left show business following her 1960 marriage to actor Donald Harron, and divorced him in 1968. In the '70's Leith resumed her career and appeared in a few films and on television shows, including 'Starsky and Hutch', 'Barnaby Jones', and 'Baretta'. She left the screen again in the early '80's. Her most recognisable role may have been that of a decapitated woman whose head is kept alive in 1962's 'The Brain That Wouldn't Die'.

* William Wintersole - born July 30th 1931, died November 5th 2019, aged 88. Wintersole was an American Actor of television and film who had 87 actings credits to his name, from his TV debut on 'The Outer Limits' in 1964, right up to fifty episodes on 'The Young and the Restless' from 1986 through to 2011. In between time there was uncredited roles on 'Valley of the Dolls' in 1967, 'The Hindenburg' in 1975, 'W.C. Fields and Me' in 1976, and credited bit parts on 'Moonfire', 'Squares', 'Leadbelly', and 'Coma'. His more notable small screen appearances took in the likes of  'Rawhide', 'Peyton Place', 'The Fugitive', 'The Invaders', 'Star Trek', 'The Mod Squad', 'Lancer', 'I Dream of Jeannie', 'McCloud', 'Mission : Impossible', 'The Partridge Family', 'Gunsmoke', 'Bonanza', 'The Waltons', 'Columbo' and 'Kojak'.

* Lawrence G. Paull - born April 13th 1938 died November 10th 2019, aged 81. Paull was an American neofuturistic film Production Designer and Art Director who amassed 35 Production Design credits and twenty Art Director credits during his career that launched in 1971 with 'The Hired Hand' Directed and starring Peter Fonda, and then took in the likes of 'The Naked Ape', 'Blade Runner', 'Romancing the Stone', 'Back to the Future', 'American Flyers', 'Cocoon : The Return', 'Harlem Nights', 'Predator 2', 'City Slickers', 'Sgt. Bilko', 'Escape from L.A.' and TV movie 'Murder in the Mirror' in 2000 which was to be his last film. Paul collected two award wins and two nominations including an Oscar nod for his work on 'Blade Runner', a BAFTA and a London Critics Circle win for 'Blade Runner', and a BAFTA nod for 'Back to the Future'.

* Niall Toibin - born November 21st 1929 died November 13th 2019, aged 89. Toibin was an Irish Comedian and Actor of film and television who amassed 64 acting credits throughout his career which launched in 1967 on an Irish mini-series and then started to take off with Disney's 'Guns in the Heather' with a young Kurt Russell, before 1970's David Lean Directed 'Ryan's Daughter' and then the first Irish feature film shot entirely in Ireland and in the native Irish tongue 'Poitin' in 1978. This was followed up by 'The Outsider', 'The Sleep of Death', 'Lovespell', 'Reflections', 'Rawhead Rex', 'Eat the Peach', 'Far and Away', 'Rat' and 'Veronica Guerin' in 2003 which was to be his last big screen role. In the meantime, there were turns on TV series including 'Brideshead Revisited', eleven episodes of 'Bracken', the mini-series 'Caught in a Free State', 'Wagner', and 'The Detective', sixteen episodes on 'The Irish R.M.', 22 episodes on 'Stay Lucky', 52 episodes on 'Ballykissangel' as Father MacAnally and nine epodes on 'The Clinic'. Toibin received an Honorary Doctor of Arts Degree from University College Cork in June 2010 and he was also honoured with the Irish Film and Television Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony at the Irish Film Institute in November 2011. In May 2015, he was awarded the Freedom of Cork (the city in which he was born) in recognition of his film, television and stage work.

* Branko Lustig - born June 10th 1932, died November 14th 2019 aged 87. Lustig was a Croatian film Producer best known for winning Academy Awards for Best Picture for 'Schindler's List' and 'Gladiator'. He is the only person born in the territory of present day Croatia to have won two Academy Awards. Lustig began his film career in 1955 as an assistant director at Jadran Film, a state-owned Zagreb-based film production company. He was the location manager for 1971's 'Fiddler on the Roof' and in the '80's he worked on the TV miniseries 'The Winds of War' in 1983 and its sequel 'War and Remembrance' in 1988. He moved to the United States in 1988. Other major Hollywood films that Lustig worked on as a Producer or Executive Producer include 'The Peacemaker', 'Hannibal', 'Black Hawk Down', 'Kingdom of Heaven', 'A Good Year', and 'American Gangster'. Lustig celebrated his bar mitzvah on 2nd May 2011 at Auschwitz, in front of barrack No. 24a. He missed his rite of passage as a thirteen year-old because at the time he was a prisoner in the very same barrack, having been deported from his birth town of Osijek when he was ten years old. A year earlier in September 2010, he was awarded honorary citizenship of Osijek. Aside from his two aforementioned Academy Award wins, Lustig also won a Primetime Emmy, two BAFTA's, two DGA and two PGA awards amidst a total haul of thirteen award wins and another three nominations.

* Michael J. Pollard - born May 30th 1939, died November 20th 2019, aged 80. Pollard was an American Actor and Comedian, whose screen acting career spanned seven decades, in which he amassed 116 acting credits. Following a number of small screen appearances from 1958 onwards, he scored his first credited big screen role in 1963's 'The Stripper' with Joanne Woodward followed by 'Summer Magic' that same year with Hayley Mills. 'The Wild Angels' followed in 1966 with Peter Fonda and Bruce Dern, and then 'Caprice' in 1967 with Doris Day and Richard Harris, and 'Bonnie & Clyde' that same year with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. 'Little Fauss and Big Halsy' with Robert Redford, 'Petroleum Girls' with Brigitte Bardot, 'Dirty Little Billy', Sunday in the Country' with Ernest Borgnine, 'Melvin and Howard', 'The American Way', 'Roxanne', 'American Gothic', 'Scrooged', 'Next of Kin', 'Tango & Cash', 'Dick Tracy', 'Split Second', 'Arizona Dream', 'Mad Dog Time', 'The Debtors', 'House of a 1000 Corpses', with 'The Next Cassavettes' currently in Post-Production all followed up to the present day. Many of these films starred A-list acting talent and ensemble casts but aside from a few failed to make any significant impact either critically or commercially. Pollard was nominated for six awards all for his work on 'Bonnie & Clyde' including Academy Award, a Golden Globe and BAFTA nods for Best Supporting Actor.

This week there are six latest release cinematic offerings to tease you out to your local Odeon. We start with a tale of deception on the part of an ageing confidence trickster to manipulate his way into the life of a widow with a small fortune, only to have the tables turned on him. Next is a story of a rookie New Orleans cop who goes on the run after filming other dirty cops murder a young guy, as she now seeks refuge from those cops hunting her down before she can expose their nefarious deeds. We then turn to an animated CGI film about an age old classic yet somewhat spooky and mysterious family whose home comes under threat from a reality TV presenter who wants to redevelop their land. These are followed up with two doco's - the first from the US about an unscrupulous, ruthless yet powerful lawyer and political Mr. Fixit who was very active for the 25 years leading up to his death in 1986; and a perhaps infamous race along 230 kms of dirt tracks in the desert outback of Australia's Northern Territory where any motor vehicle with wheels can enter, and all walks of life do, every year. And we wrap up the week with another doco helmed by a first time Director but a legend of the music industry as he performs his 19th album and reflects on the American way of life, and his earlier influences.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'THE GOOD LIAR' (Rated MA15+) - this American crime thriller is Directed and Co-Produced by  the Oscar winning Bill Condon whose previous Directing credits take in the likes of 1987's 'Sister, Sister' (his debut feature film), 1998's 'Gods and Monsters', 2004's 'Kinsey', 2006's 'Dreamgirls', 'The Twilight Saga : Breaking Dawn - Parts 1 and 2', 2013's 'The Fifth Estate', 2015's 'Mr. Holmes' and 2017's Disney's live action remake of 'Beauty and the Beast'. Here Condon collaborates with Sir Ian McKellen for the third time in the male leading role opposite female lead Helen Mirren. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Searle, was released in the UK in early November, in the US in mid-November, and now it arrives in Australian cinemas having taken US$22M off the back of a Production Budget of US$10M and garnered mixed or average Reviews along the way so far.

Long term career con man Roy Courtnay (Ian McKellen) can hardly believe his luck when in 2009 he meets well-to-do widow Betty McLeish (Helen Mirren) online. As Betty opens her life and home to him, having lost her husband a year ago with savings in excess of two million pounds, Roy is surprised to find himself caring about her, turning what should be a cut-and-dry swindle of an ageing widow out of her small fortune, into the most treacherous tightrope walk of his life. Also starring Russell Tovey and Jim Carter.

'BLACK AND BLUE' (Rated CTC) - this American action thriller is Directed by Deon Taylor whose previous Directorial outings include 'Chain Letter', 'Supremacy', 'Traffik' and 'The Intruder'. The film was released in the US at the end of October, cost US$12M to make, has so far grossed US$23M and has generated mixed or average Reviews so far. Here, a rookie policewoman Alicia West (Naomi Harris) in New Orleans inadvertently captures the shooting death of a young drug dealer on her body cam. After realising the murder was committed by corrupt cops Deacon, Terry and Smitty (James Mosese Black, Frank Grillo and Beau Knapp respectively), she teams up with the only person from the community who's willing to help her, Milo Jackson (Tyrese Gibson). Now, she finds herself on the run from both the vengeful criminals and the lawmen who desperately want to destroy the incriminating footage, before she is able to upload it to her superior officers. Mike Colter also stars.

'THE ADDAMS FAMILY' (Rated PG) - this time around after many iterations over the decades we have a new computer animated supernatural comedy feature film based on the characters created by Charles Addams way back in 1938. This offering is Directed by the pairing of Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan with the former also acting as Co-Producer and Co-Writer of the story upon which the film is based. Vernon also Co-Directed 'Shrek 2', 'Monsters vs. Aliens', 'Madagascar 3 : Europe's Most Wanted', and with Tiernan, 2016's 'Sausage Party'. Members of the mysterious and spooky Addams family - Gomez (voiced by Oscar Isaac), Morticia (Charlize Theron), Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard), Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz), Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll) and Grandma (Bette Midler) are all busily preparing for a visit from their even creepier relatives. But trouble soon arises when shady reality TV personality Margaux Needler (Allison Janney) realises that the Addams' eerie hilltop mansion is standing in the way of her dream to sell all the houses in the neighbourhood, and build her planned community. The film also features the voice talents of Conrad Vernon, Snoop Dogg, Martin Short and Catherine O'Hara amongst others, was made for US$24M, has so far grossed US$180M since its release in the US in early October, has received generally mixed or average Reviews, and a sequel is already in the works scheduled for a 22nd October 2021 release date.

'WHERE'S MY ROY COHN' (Rated PG) - is an American documentary film Directed and Produced by Matt Tyrnauer and is an insightful exploration into the life and times of Roy Cohn - one of the most controversial and influential American men of the 20th Century. He was a ruthless and unscrupulous lawyer and political power broker and top fixer whose 28-year career ranged from acting as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army–McCarthy hearings in 1954, for assisting with McCarthy's investigations of suspected communists, and to forging the career of a young Queens real estate developer named Donald Trump, as his personal lawyer. Cohn died in 1986 at the age of 59 of complications from AIDS. The film Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year, has so far taken about US$700K at the Box Office and has received generally favourable Press. The title of the film is reported to be a quote from President Donald Trump, as he discussed Attourney General Jeff Sessions's withdrawal from the Meuller Investigation.

'FINKE : THERE AND BACK' (Rated M) - the Finke Desert Race is the largest off-road motorsport event in the Southern Hemisphere and Australia’s fastest, deadliest, toughest and dustiest race, covering 230kms of dirt track for multi terrain bikes, cars, buggies and quads through desert country from Alice Springs to the small Aputula (Finke) community. The race is held each year on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend in June over two days. Filmed over three years, 'Finke' explores the race from within - its competitors, organisers, paramedics, and the drive to win against the desert at all costs, delivering a visual adventure of inspiration and danger, excitement, thrills and spills. Directed by Dylan River who also wrote this documentary and acted as Cinematographer.

'WESTERN STARS' (Rated PG) - is the nineteenth studio album by American Singer/Songwriter Bruce Springsteen. The album marks Springsteen's first new studio album of solo material since 2012's 'Wrecking Ball'. This documentary film, which marks Springsteen's Directorial debut, features a full performance of the album, which Premiered at the TIFF in September 2019, with a wide theatrical release in October 2019 along with an accompanying soundtrack for the film. Weaving archival footage and Springsteen's personal narration with song to tell the story, upon announcing the album in April 2019, he called it 'a return to my solo recordings featuring character-driven songs and sweeping, cinematic orchestral arrangements', with a press release characterising it as about a 'range of American themes, of highways and desert spaces, of isolation and community and the permanence of home and hope'. 

With six new release movies this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-