When billionaire
Demi (Harvey Keitel) drops dead in his private flat in Bradford, his
chauffeur Donald (Gabriel Byrne) discovers his final job is to clear
the place of any traces of Demi's mistress Amber (Sibylla Deen). But
Amber has other problems with her life in the Pakistani community of
Bradford, and Donald finds it impossible not to try to protect her
from the violence that threatens her. Because there's a video....
When Lies We Tell
had its theatrical release, most of the interest lay in finding
out how first-time writer/director Mitu Misra and his producer Andy
McDermott (who co-wrote the screenplay with Ewen Glass from Misra's
story) were able to put together such a cast together for such a
stylish-looking debut film. Misra was no recent film graduate; he is
a 58 year old self-made millionaire, who sold off his double-glazing
company to bankroll his dream of becoming a filmmaker. A certain
amount of northern chutzpah and an equal amount of innocent
enthusiasm seemed to do the trick, bringing the big names on board,
and the story itself may have done a lot of the rest.
Amber is the focus
of the film, caught between the world of Pakistani immigrants and the
world of white Britain into which she wants to move, to practice law,
something which her affair with Demi is financing. But she was
married off at 16 to a cousin, KD, who has also made part of that
transition, as a local gangster. By going public and accusing her
cousin of raping her, Amber won a divorce, but also the suspicion of
her community and the smouldering hatred of KD, who now wants to
marry Amber's younger sister. Into this world of threat comes Donald,
morose and lonely, divorced and living on a run-down farm with Billy,
his ex-wife's brother.
Although Lies We
Tell doesn't look like a first-time filmmaker's effort, in large
part to the exceptionally sensitive cinematography of Santosh Sivan—a
leading light in Indian film, and as much a star catch as Keitel or
Byrne—his shooting sets the tones of each scene, and because the
movie leaps around in tone, the pictures actually accentuate that.
Which isn't always totally positive, as there are otherwise has a
number of hallmarks of a beginner, not least the urge to cover loads
of bases as if to prove the ability to work in all sorts of styles.
The script is somewhat repetitive, especially where the younger
sister is concerned, with conflicts restated that don't need to be,
and the dialogue is often melodramatically one dimensional. The
result is that KD, played with great enthusiasm by Jan Uddin, becomes
almost a parody of villains we've seen before; similarly the women
around Amber's family are classic harpies. But there are other
fascinating touches, like KD's abuse of his English girlfriend Tracy,
again a take on big-time gangster roles, and a sudden burst of
strength from Amber's father (Harish Patel), which comes after one of
the film's most realistic scenes, of men's release while betting on
cock-fighting.
It's the up and down
tone and the hesitation in resolving the film's many story-lines
(Demi's son, for example, wants a piece of Amber) which both slow it
down and make it frustrating. The Donald-Amber relationship, a riff
of sorts on Mona Lisa, only really gains traction when she finally
visits the farm, whose Hovis commercial look remind us of the wider
context.
Deen, who comes to
the role from Neighbours, is a revelation as Amber, and Misra
lets her fill the screen. We've seen morose Byrne before, but he does
it well, and makes it easier to believe the nature of their relation.
Mark Addy is brilliant as his counterbalance, Billy, and there's a
nice cameo from Gina McKee as Byrne's ex. But you have to wonder
about the twists and turns, the back and forth, the odd longeur.
Where did Amber get Donald's number? And why, in one key scene, is KD
travelling without his minders? Not many first-timers begin on as
grand a scale as Misra, and if it's not a solid success, it has its
moments. The key question will be whether Lies We Tell will
help him convince the next batch of talent to sign on board.
Lies We Tell is
now available on download and on DVD
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