In enjoyed most of Egoyan's movies very much, but I was disappointed by Where The Truth Lies. I got the impression the film wants to be too much at the same time. There is no real focus while the story swerves from the fifties to the seventies, and from Los Angeles to New York to Miami. It's a historical portrait about Hollywood in the fifties, but also a psychological drama and a whodunit at the same time. This movie could have been great if it restricted itself to one of those genres. I kept wondering what Egoyan wanted to tell us - except who killed Maureen O'Flaherty. Maybe he wanted to tell us only that, but in that case the movie could have been a lot less complex. What annoyed me most was the completely improbable plot. A corpse in a lobster crate, mixed-up identities, secret letters from unknown senders, blackmail threats - that's so Agatha Christie! And I wonder if anyone felt not disappointed after the ridiculous ending.
Where the Truth Lies
2005
Action / Crime / Drama / Mystery / Thriller
Where the Truth Lies
2005
Action / Crime / Drama / Mystery / Thriller
Plot summary
Karen O'Connor tells the story about two distinct but related periods in her life. In 1972, she is an up-and-coming Los Angeles based journalist who has been given the lucrative assignment of convincing once successful comic Vince Collins, who is at the tail end of his career, to allow her to ghost write his memoirs. Most specifically, she has the task from her publishers of discovering the reason behind two issues in Vince's life from 1957: why he and his former on-stage partner Lanny Morris, who is still active and well known within the entertainment business, broke up their professional partnership shortly after they hosted a successful thirty-nine hour telethon for polio research in Miami, there not having been any indication of problems between the two before that; and how did the dead body of Maureen O'Flaherty end up in the water filled bathtub in Vince and Lanny's New Jersey hotel suite, the opening of that New Jersey hotel owned by mobster Sally Sanmarco which was Lanny and Vince's next gig after the telethon. Maureen, a college student, was working part-time as a room service waitress at the Miami Versailles Hotel where Vince and Lanny were staying during the telethon, she who had served the pair at the time. The last she was known to be seen was by the Miami hotel staff when Lanny and Vince were still staying there three days before the discovery of her body, with the official cause of death being accidental drowning as she had narcotics in her system. Neither Lanny or Vince was ever implicated in having anything to do with Maureen's death or even how she got from Miami to New Jersey coinciding with their own travels. Despite there perhaps being more well known writers who could do the job, the publishing company chose Karen as, known or unknown to Vince, she was the Miracle Child, a polio survivor who appeared on the 1957 telethon. During her research, Karen is unable to meet with Lanny, who, through his legal representatives, tells her that he is writing his own explosive tell-all book which will make her project meaningless. In Karen's search for the truth, things get complicated when she starts receiving from an anonymous source upcoming chapters from Lanny's memoirs which may purely be to throw her off the track from reality, and when she meets Lanny in the flesh, she not divulging to him who she really is.
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This film wants to be too much at the same time
Disappointing effort from Egoyan
Egoyan's weakest film, at least since he came to prominence with Exotica. It's actually a somewhat interesting mystery, but it has a lot of flaws. There is a death, possibly a murder, in the hotel suite of two famous comedians (played by Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon),based on Martin and Lewis. That's the film's biggest flaw, that this completely fictional mystery uses Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis as a model. It's very distracting. The bulk of the story has a young journalist (Alison Lohman) writing the story of the two comedians, trying to solve the mystery. The film-making is pretty good, but Egoyan, except for The Sweet Hereafter, has always been a weak director when it comes to actors. Lohman, who was great in Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men, is awful here (she does get naked and have sex with a woman, though, which makes the film almost worth seeing). Kevin Bacon, who gave his best performance ever last year in the still underseen The Woodsman, isn't especially good, either. Only Firth does a good job. The film is also overscored with some very cliché mystery music. Mychael Danna's scores for Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter were brilliant; this one's a flop.
worth a second look
It's 1972 L.A. Karen O'Connor (Alison Lohman) is writing about entertainment duo Lanny Morris (Kevin Bacon) and Vince Collins (Colin Firth). She tries to get to the truth of what happened 15 years ago. Lanny and Vince were performing a 39 hour telethon in Miami and Karen had a central part as a child. The womanizing Lanny had a night with the hotel maid Maureen O'Flaherty (Rachel Blanchard) before the telethon. Afterwards, the boys go to a New Jersey hotel where Maureen is found dead in their room. The death was quickly covered up and ruled a suicide.
Director Atom Egoyan brings a labyrinthian style to the material. It can be a bit clearer about certain parts. It works better with a second viewing. The main deficiency is Lohman. She is much too childlike as an actress. It works for her for certain roles and in this case, she is asked to play herself as a child. I would rather have Vera Farmiga and her sister Taissa can play the younger version. In the end, the child version isn't a big enough role to truly influence the selection for Karen. The Bacon Firth combo is an intriguing one. That's the level that Lohman has to hit but just misses. Egoyan could have helped with a clearer structure to the story. This is still worth a second look if only for the hidden tension between Bacon and Firth.