Film review: You'll regret knowing the truth of 'The Lie'
Moral compromise and unyielding paranoia plant the seed for the psychodrama 'The Lie' (streams on Amazon Prime Video starting Oct. 6 as part of the Welcome to the Blumhouse anthology) - but a bonkers and unearned ending totally upends an otherwise intriguing family drama grounded in the burden of knowing a horrible truth.
In short: When 15-year-old Kayla (Joey King) admits to pushing her best friend Brittany (Devery Jacobs) off a bridge, her divorced parents Jay and Rebecca (Peter Sarsgaard and Mireille Enos) try to cover up their daughter's crime with a web of lies.
The conceit of 'The Lie' is to force the audience what question how far they would go to protect their child - even if they knew their daughter committed that crime. It's an excruciating thought exercise that no parent would want to entertain for even a moment. The script gets to the point pretty quickly - a crime happens in short order and Kayla readily admits to her part in it.
While 'The Lie' has the tension of a mystery, the film has all the underpinnings of a horror story - but the monster isn't some supernatural being or some psychopath ... this family is being stalked by the truth. The script is racked with tension in its quiet moments, where Sarsgaard and Enos are forced to work through the sudden nightmare they find themselves drowning in.
Beneath the murder and cover-up plot elements, 'The Lie' is fundamentally a divorced parent's worst nightmare. The film opens with a collage of happy family memories, then suddenly jumps to point of divorced acrimony and a child caught in the maelstrom. Kayla is spoiled and her aloof parents transfer her without much affection. The movie is a hyperbolic cry for help - a child of divorce embracing an event that brings her estranged family together.
While 'The Lie' is strongest in its family drama elements, it's a particularly lazy and rushed film when it comes to the film's meager investigation. The family's adversary is ultimately justice for Brittany. And every plot element that embodies the investigation into Brittany's death is paper thin and poorly developed. The family's web of lies is so flimsy that of course their scheme caves in on itself - and yet, the 'The Lie' still finds it necessary for the perfect evidence to magically manifest itself at just the perfect moment.
No spoilers ... but the ending is a betrayal. A twist ending is a twist ending - they only work when the groundwork is clearly in place. But the 'twist ending' of this film is so whiplash-inducing that it's insulting. The reveal itself isn't mindblowing in its complexity or thrilling in its escalation. It's deflating in a way that makes the entire experience of watching 'The Lie' feel pointless and a complete waste of time.
Final verdict: The first 80 minutes of moral conflict and parental neglect are completely undone with one stupid plot turn that reduces 'The Lie' from thoughtful divorce drama to a flick with a cheap gimmick.
Score: 1.5/5
'The Lie' is available on Amazon Prime Video on Oct. 6. This psychodrama mystery is rated R for brief sexuality, some violence and language throughout and has a running time of 95 minutes.
