ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

AWARD-WINNING arthouse director Atom Egoyan takes an uncertain step towards the mainstream with the adult thriller ‘Where The Truth Lies’.

A sordid showbusiness saga of dark deeds and guilty secrets, it has some of the style and polish of a Hollywood classic like ‘Sunset Boulevard’, but some very bizarre casting choices prove to be fatal.

Drifting between the 1970s and the 1950s, the film focuses on double-act Lanny Morris (Kevin Bacon) and Vince Collins (Colin Firth). They are dead ringers for real-life Hollywood act Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, although Vince is more of a Rat pack smoothie in the manner of Peter Lawford.

In 1957, they are at the peak of their joint career, performing in a charity telethon. A woman dies. A scandal is concealed. The double-act dissolves and the two men are never close again.

In 1972, ambitious young journalist Karen O’Connor (Alison Lohman) is determined to get at the truth of what happened. It will make her biography of the duo all the more juicy. She will stop at nothing even if that means sleeping with Lanny or betraying Vince’s trust.

The convoluted plot of ‘Where The Truth Lies’ is intriguing enough, but poor Alison Lohman feels less like a hardboiled reporter and more like a girl on a school assignment. A game Colin Firth is equally adrift as a volatile showbusiness swinger.

The film’s best performance comes from Scots actor David Hayman as Lanny’s creepy manservant. Ultimately, Egoyan can’t erase the impression that this heavy-handed tale feels like a poor man’s David Lynch thriller.

General release, selected cinemas nationwide
Director: Atom Egoyan
Stars: Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, Alison Lohman, David Hayman, Rachel Blanchard, Maury Chaykin
Screenplay: Atom Egoyan, based on the novel by Rupert Holmes
Certificate: 18
Running time: 107 mins
Country: Canada/UK
Year: 2005

© Allan Hunter, 2005