The Good Liar

**Spoilers** A strange, ugly and unpleasantly exploitative film, oddly packaged as a "Sunday Matinee" bit of frivolity - while it's a pleasure to see Mirren and McKellen benignly sparking off each other for about an hour, it's when things take a nasty turn that this becomes difficult to watch - imagine DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, but with a finale involving rape, murder and Nazism. It may well be a case of poor marketing (but how you would market such a tonally odd film is a bit of a mystery.)

As others have said, the leads are good, but the story is very weak. Instead of having a mystery, they withhold everything you need to figure it out. Then they reveal something completely new that changes everything with thirty minutes left. This can work, if there are hints to the truth, but it did not work here at all.

What starts off as, what appears to be, a fun con-job, 'who's fooling who' type story, quickly escalates it to something more. I only give this any credit because it features Helen Miren and Ian McKellen, who are both great. The plot, however, has one of the most egregious unearned turns that didn't work for me at all.

A fairly good though obvious story. They just had to throw in the obligatory but irrelevant gay element at the end. It's like you can't get a movie distributed today without it.

This is shockingly not good. Mirren and McKellen bring their best, but the plot is so meandering and nonsensical that it doesn’t end up working at all. The film gleefully dives into deeper and deeper twists, but they end up subtracting from rather than adding to the story. Disappointing.

With leads like Mckellen and Miran in a drama/thriller, you'd be justified in assuming some kind of prestige and quality. Big names with exceptional history, have a kind of freedom to choose roles with discrimination. But "The Good Liar" is a limp thriller and a poor drama with a twist that just doesn't pay off to even justify the run time.

It's great to see Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen together...if only it could be in a movie that's actually, you know, good. A bland dramatization of a novel, the plot of which hinges on some preposterous coincidences. I'm assuming the almost embarrassing lack of dramatic tension is the fault of Hatcher and Condon, but I'm certainly not about to read Searle's novel to find out. Once the flashbacks start, grit your teeth--it's a long slog until things improve again during the last 15 minutes.

Totally agree with Glumpy_99; imagine paying out for this thinking it's a lightweight vehicle to highlight 2 "national treasure" actors in a very English farce, only to find you have actually paid for Schindlers Striped Pyjamas! Its the equivalent of taking your kids to a christmas pantomine, only to find half way through Cinderella murders Buttons in a drug fuelled orgy. Whilst I dont mind a complete tonal shift, it was not accompanied by a shift in tone of the central characters, which grated

The second the first flashback kicked in, it all went downhill. There was always an eerie feeling that was going well and you were intrigued, but then it crumbled. Not boring, but in the end, soooo forgettable.

Mirren and McKellen are among my favorite actors. Both command authority with their presence. They just quite didn't work in the same room. While the twists were amusing and clever, the ending took a stark steer to the realm of pure fantastical nonsense.

(THE BAD FILM)

I really enjoyed this. Plus, Morgana meets Gandalf for the first time!

I enjoyed this one. By the end, the overall plot is a bit unbelievable but it's compelling with good performances.

Should have been called "The Bad Movie"!

better than I thought it was gonna be

This confirms without a shadow of a doubt that virtually nobody likes a slow burn. They just don't, no matter what they say to the contrary. Anyway, that's them. I on the other hand rather enjoyed this movie while not adoring it. The serious uptick in intensity in the film's third act was refreshing and the ultimate connection between the two leads -- who were both excellent, by the way -- was unexpected and (I thought) well-executed. Solid direction. But hey -- you can't please everybody.

eng; [the good liar]; ein notorischer trickbetrüger findet eine reiche Witwe, doch im Verlauf wird seine Geschichte immer aufwändiger.; (gut gespielt, aber Trailer versprach etwas anderes);

Hastasıyız dede. Ian Mickellen ve Helen Mirren'dan sahtekarlık öyküsü. Sosyal medyada tanışan çiftimiz, dedenin annemizin paralarını çalmasıyla devam ediyor. Ağır bir tempoda ilerleyen film, ani kırılma noktalarıyla da şaşırtıyor. Fakat, özensiz ve tekinsiz ilerlemesi dikkati elden kaçırıyor. Filmin sonunda, annemiz, dededen intikamını soğuk bir yemek gibi alıyor. Para bizde şöhret bizde. Sende ne var? Haydi söyle.

The trailer made me have surprisingly high expectations for this. Sluggish and disappointing.

Not bad.

A little bit too smooth and unbelievable but 2 great actors and a plot that kept interest.

watchable

Truly disappointing. I was told Ellen Mirren and Keanu Reeves were together.

OK but the ending was a little too much.

McKellen and Mirren are great but the story and movie itself not so much.

Sadly a very silly and often amateurish movie with two leads trying (too) hard to make it work.