Film Review: Lying

Lying

Director: M. Bash

Staring: Chloe Sevigny (Boys Don't Cry, Kids, Big Love) Jena Malone (Saved!), LeeLee Sobieski (Joan of Arc)

Year: 2006, but released in the US in 2008 and 2009
Genre: Independent/Experimental film
MPAA Rating: Not Rated? 
Tedious & Brief's Realistic Rating: There's some minor cussing.  Nothing really noticeable.  I think I had heard worse from my grandmother.

Running time: 94 minutes

       The setting for Lying is fairly simple: a young women, Megan (played by Chloe Sevigny), invites two interns from work and a friend from her yoga class to spend the weekend with her in her country house away from the city which she inherited from her parents.  They decide to have a girl's weekend and also apparent help Megan with a few small projects; however, as the weekend goes on it becomes apparent that at least one person isn't who she seems to be.
      
       I found Lying to be a perplexing film.  I had read some not-so-great reviews before watching it, but on the strength of the cast and premise felt it would be worth it.  The acting is a bit awkward, possibly due to the way the film was shot and written (there was apparently no finished script, just an outline).  The cinematography is either epic in that it's sometimes jarring and out of focus as a visual symbol of the lies being told or epically bad in that it's out of focus and clunky done all in handheld cameras.  Possibly it was the copy I was watching, but the picture looked almost grainy. 

       Somewhere I read that they were trying to show what a film with an unreliable narrator would be like, which is an interesting concept, but just doesn't work with this film.  The characters, plot, and even some of the scenes are confusing.  Had the ending been stronger it may have been worth it, but it was seriously lacking and left me heartily disappointed.  These actresses have made much better films and it's unfortunate that their pairing up wasn't stronger.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.  You're not missing much, and I say this even as someone who likes independent films.  Had the ending been stronger and there not been some fairly bizarre, unexplained film elements and scenes, I may have given it a bit better reviewing.