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Separate Lies

Anne (Emily Watson) and James (Tom Wilkinson) seemingly have the ideal marriage until the arrival of a stranger (Everett) begins a string of astonishing events that leads to murder and adultery and threatens to unravel their lives forever.

Member Reviews

Captivating and Intelligently Crafted - c4th

Separate Lies is an intelligently crafted drama of lies and betrayal. Tom Wilkinson’s captivating portrayal of James Manning, successful lawyer and egocentric controlling husband and Emily Watson’s first-rate performance as his wife Anne are paramount to the film’s quality and success.

The film explores human frailties by throwing a couple into a situation that not only presents a moral dilemma but rocks the foundation of their marital union. There is mystery and intrigue and the expectation of a possible twist. When a final twist is revealed it is more thought provoking than shocking and sticks to the core theme of morality and the fine line that frequently separates right from wrong.

I highly recommend this fabulous film. It is among the few delightfully surprising gems I have discovered in the Zip catalogue and one of the most captivating films I’ve seen for a long time.

A Superb Story Told Superbly - CharleyJames

In less deft hands, "Separate Lies" could easily have been turned into just another British potboiler romance gone stray with a dash of murder, intrigue, infidelity and betrayal tossed into the stew.

But Julian Fellowes superb directing of Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson and Rupert Everett - all three of whom turn in masterful performances - turns what could easily have been just another "the poot sod who gets cuckholded by a friend" into an intriguing exploration of human frailty, what constitutes happiness, redemption and love.

Wilksinson is a hugely successful solictor in The City, a control freak who fusses endlessly over everything in his life from the wording of a short phrase in a deal letter to how his PA sorts papers on his desk and which dish his wife uses to serve an antipasto. He is so busy worrying about things that don't matter, he fails to spot how unhappy his wife is in their marriage - so unhappy Watson drifts into an affair with Everett because "he doesn't care about anything, even me, so it's easy being with him."

Even when it turns out Watson was driving Everett's car that hit and kills the husband of her housekeeper, Watson tries controlling a situation that is way beyond his control. As it becomes clear his wife and her lover are heading towards being caught and a prison sentence, Watson finally realises the less he tries to control the more control he has - especially over his own life.

"Separate Lies" rises above the well-trod ground it explores to become a superb story told superbly.

Separate Lies - Coco

This is an incredibly strong film with a deleteriously rushed (though, contrary to the opinions of some daffy critics, entirely credible) third act, from Tomorrow Never Dies’ Minister of Defense who happens to also be the screenwriter behind Altman’s doubtlessly 80% improvised/rewritten-by-the-director-and-cast Gosford Park. As this is Mr. Fellowes’ first film as director, he does wise to let the actors (a profession about which he ought to know a thing or two) do most of the heavy lifting, which pays off grandly, particularly in the case of the riveting Tom Wilkinson, who carries the whole film on his humanist shoulders like a plundering Viking, British in his politeness, with a Dostoevsky-like, self-devouring ethical complex that operates as such complexes do in real life, fraught beneath the surface. He is also mature enough to know when to let go and let be. Emily Watson, remarkably, against type, is only occasionally easy to mistake as someone recently escaped from a psych-ward. It is truly rare, in this day and age, to see films about fallible people forced to make decisions like adults and live with acceptance of one another, no matter how crudely they progress (or fail to). It seems like it has been decades since it was common to see films that, like Separate Lies, remind us that life is complicated and that there may not always be right and wrong choices. As corruption within the elite has become a de rigueur subject in American and British culture these days, private sides of public lives often eddying perilously inward toward disaster and tragedy, tabloids and major media outlets becoming more hybridized daily, people dying for their mistakes, the film could have said more about what is really at stake. All the same, it is a real treat - people ought to check this film out. It’s an excellent minor work hinting at major import.

c0c02

Member Reviews Read All...

Captivating and Intelligently Crafted - c4th

A Superb Story Told Superbly - CharleyJames

Separate Lies - Coco

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