Skip to main content

HOME INVASION (LIES WE TELL)

© Break Out Pictures 

There's dark and then there's really dark.

Lisa Mulcahy's Irish period drama 'Lies We Tell' falls into that latter camp.

Adapted from Sheridan Le Fanu's Victorian Gothic novel 'Uncle Silas,' the film is a brutal examination of familial greed and the lengths some people will go to satisfy it.

Agnes O'Casey stars as Maud, a young woman recently bereaved following the death of her wealthy father.

© Break Out Pictures 

Living on the Knowl estate, as per her father's will the family's fortune has been left to her but is handled by two trustees, Mark Doherty's Doctor Brylerly and Kieran Roche's Captain Ilbury.

However he has also instructed his brother, David Wilmot's Silas to be Maud's guardian.

Silas comes with a lot of baggage, though, having been suspected, when he was younger, of the murder in Knowl of a man he owed a gambling debt to but whose death was ruled as a suicide.

Unable to lift the cloud of suspicion, Silas has also amassed a lot of debt.

© Break Out Pictures 

Silas also comes with a family, Holly Sturton's flighty daughter Emily and Chris Walley's feckless son Edward.

Emily has a French Governess, played by Grainne Keenan, also in tow.

Initially Silas is full of sweetness and light as he engages Maud, appearing really proud of his niece.

However as the movie wears on, it becomes clear that he sees Maud's fortune as a means to the end of sorting out his financial problems.

© Break Out Pictures 

He tries to stage manage a marriage between her and Edward.

However his son repulses Maud and when she rejects Edward's marriage proposal, tensions between her and Silas escalate as her uncle tries to assert authority over her.

A vicious battle of wits erupts with traumatic consequences but who will come out on top?

Jettisoning a third of Sheridan Le Fanu's 1864 novel, Mulcahy turns the plot into a Gothic period home invasion thriller in which greedy relatives try to seize control of Muad's inheritance.

© Break Out Pictures 

Their avarice unleashes horrific acts of violence and psychological torture but the film focuses on Maud's refusal to have her spirit broken.

O'Casey turns in a fierce performance as Maud, emphasising her dogged determination not to be destroyed by her horrible relatives.

Wilmot does a good job as the chief villain, initially cloaking his character's unpleasantness before stripping the pretence away to reveal his true self 

Walley is handed a challenging role as the feckless, bullied, easily manipulated son pushed into committing horrific acts.

© Break Out Pictures 

We're several worlds away from his best known role as Jock in 'The Young Offenders'.

Sturton is effective as the fickle and breezy as Emily, while there is a touch of Mrs Danvers about Keenan's Governess.

Doherty revels in the pomposity of the doctor, while Roche offers some real heart as Captain Ilbury in an otherwise bleak tale.

Elaine O'Dwyer, John Olohan and Eleanor Methven cast knowing looks as the servants on the Knowl estate, Mary Quince and Mr and Mrs Rusk. 

© Break Out Pictures 

Working on a tight budget, Mulcahy and her cinematographer are resourceful and build an unsettling atmosphere.

They use darkness and amber light in a manner that is reminiscent of Roger Michell's 2017 Gothic thriller 'My Cousin Rachel'.

At times, the bleak, cold mise en scene in daytime also calls to mind William Oldroyd's 2016 period drama 'Lady Macbeth' with Florence Pugh which had the same foreboding air.

Working from Elisabeth Gooch's screenplay, the cruelty depicted by Mulcahy will no doubt be difficult for some people to stomach.

© Break Out Pictures

One pivotal scene is as cruel as a film like this can possibly get and may hold the key to whether you can take it or not. 

If you can, you will find Mulcahy's movie a fascinating tale of feminine resistance.

The idea of a Gothic home invasion thriller is also an interesting one - even if the concluding scenes slighly jar.

'Lies We Tell' will not be everyone's type of movie.

© Break Out Pictures

However it announces Mulcahy as a director with a lot to offer even on a small budget.

Imagine what she could do with a larger one.

Luckily, we'll get to find out next year when the second series of the Jamie Dornan BBC thriller 'The Tourist' returns.

('Lies We Tell' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on October 13, 2023)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOUSE OF FUN (LOL: LAST ONE LAUGHING IRELAND)

© Amazon Prime Ever wondered what the 'Big Brother' house would have been like if it was populated just by comedians? No?  Neither had I. But Amazon Prime has tried to answer that question anyway with a new comedy show 'LOL: Last One Laughing Ireland'. © Amazon Prime Originally conceived by the Japanese comic Hitoshi Matsumoyo in 2016, the show throws 10 stand-ups together in a 'Big Brother' style living room for six hours with the strict instruction that they are not allowed to laugh, crack a smile or smirk at each other's jokes or anything else. If they do, the first time they falter they get a yellow card warning. The second time, they receive a red card and are out of the game. The comedian who outlasts the others wins. © Amazon Prime Versions have been produced in Mexico, Italy, Iran, Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Russia, Nigeria, Colombia and France. And with a UK version reportedly in the works, Amazon has decided to test the waters with an Irish...
Post a Comment
Read more

BEING FRANK (THE NAKED GUN)

  THE NAKED GUN We all know Liam Neeson can do comedy. We've seen him do it before in small doses. The Northern Irish actor  had the best moment in Ricky Gervais' BBC sitcom 'Life's Too Short'  with his improv sketch. Then there was in  the cereal scene in Seth MacFarlane's 'Ted 2' . There have also been chances to test his comic chops in 'Derry Girls, '  on Stephen Colbert's chat show  and as  Good Cop/Bad Cop in 'The Lego Movie' . But can he carry a whole comic movie? Neeson gets the chance to find that out in Akiva Schaffer's 'The Naked Gun' - a reboot of  David Zucker's 1988 comedy classic with Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy and OJ Simpson . Produced by Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins and working from a script by Schaffer, Dan Gregor and Doug Mend, Neeson has a very high bar to clear - playing the son of Nielsen's bungling detective Frank Drebin. Like Frank Snr, Neeson's Frank Jr is an ...
Post a Comment
Read more

LAST ONE STANDING (TRUELOVE)

© Channel 4 & Clerkenwell Films Channel 4 drama at its very best is edgy. Its finest miniseries are not afraid to tackle big issues or whip up controversy. Think Alan Bleasdale's ' GBH ,' Simon Moore's ' Traffik ,' Alan Plater and Chris Mullin's ' A Very British Coup ,' Jack Thorne's ' National Treasure ,' Dominic Savage's ' I Am ..' dramas,  Shane Meadows' ' The Virtues ' or Russell T Davies' ' It's A Sin .' These have tackled everything from the international drug trade to homophobia and AIDS, from sexual abuse to manipulation of the left wing. © Channel 4 & Clerkenwell Films 2024 has begun with another Channel 4, drama taking on a huge issue - assisted dying and the treatment of senior citizens. 'Truelove' is the creation of 'End of the F**king World' writer Charlie Lovell and Iain Wetherby and it raises uncomfortable questions. The six part miniseries begins with five fri...
Post a Comment
Read more