Well, what a mess, almost fell asleep, an hour of viewing and turned off, another radio play, why then recorded on film, but the actors are excellent. . . 1 in 10.
Streaks of interesting ideas, stupidly confused in an irregular tangle
If we consider the film in the context of the genre as a whole, then in reality all the components: suspense, mystery, twists (though not the highest quality), the theme of the depths of consciousness, a gloomy atmosphere. The catch is that for a good film, the formal presence of these components is not enough - each of them must complement and harmoniously reveal each other. What do we see here? All the characteristic details of the genre only drown one another.
Mystery and mystery: present, but only due to the deliberate complication and "confusion" of the plot. It seems that the plot is complicated only for complexity, and not to convey some idea.
Twists: read in advance, but not because they are clearly due to the development of events, but because of the obvious stupidity of introducing them into the script.
Atmosphere: a crushing sense of danger and tense expectation at the level, you have to pay tribute to the acting of Tim Roth.
The theme of mental disorders: a good start, slips to the middle, merges towards the end. The feeling that the script was written in a hurry and not particularly coordinated with the logic of the overall narrative.
The plot: clumsy and banal presentation of important information for the plot.
In sum: the ideas are very good, the beginning of the film is promising, but for the sake of an unexpected ending, the authors break all relations with logic and the connection between the reference points of the plot. Unfortunately, without specific examples, it is difficult to completely transfer all the joints, but I recommend spending time on the film only for those who want to understand how to merge the film in an attempt to complicate it.
Incredibly, thrillers were repeatedly released in the 90s, for every taste, and on various topics. And mostly, half of them are related to murder charges. This is the subject of this book.
The movie was special. There is an attractive atmosphere that heats up gradually, slowly. Events unfold smoothly, giving a detailed understanding of who is who.
Plot: The basis is the suspicion of murder, a wealthy, young man who has obvious symptoms of epilepsy, which can occur at any time. There's still a question of whether he's really guilty. Are honest cops interrogating him, or are they scum? The final verdict can be made by a lie detector!
The best thing about the film is Tim Roth’s beautifully performed game. The character turned out to be very clever, you could say a professional liar. It's like he's on a frying pan before he's questioned. The hallucinations he has are also an advantage. The others don't look bad either. I note that final of the picture - everyone will be able to understand in their own way.
"Lie Detector" - a psychological thriller, with elements of a detective, made very good. The plot of the picture, twisted as much as possible. A movie that keeps you busy until the end. Of course, the tape is worthy of attention.
“The one who confesses to lies is always more suspected than the one who is actually lying.” – James Walter Whaleland
Honestly, the 1997 detective thriller Lie Detector caught my attention by winning an award at the Police Film Festival in Cognac, France. In addition, Lie Detector has won prizes at other international forums, of course, not such as the Oscars or the Golden Globes, but it is still revered. And the genre of the film - a detective thriller - was intriguing. It was a little embarrassing that the names of the twin brothers Jonas and Josh Pate, who became directors and screenwriters of Lie Detector, who turned 27 at the time of the film’s release, never became known. But the names of Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Michael Rucker, Renee Zellweger, Roseanne Arquette and Ellen Burstyn - the actors of "Lie Detector" - were and remain on the hearing. Plus the average rating on the KP above seven points, well, how not to watch this film?
The first film of the Pate brothers was a thriller with elements of the comedy “The Treasure” (Jonas was its director, Josh was the screenwriter), released in 1995, and disappeared in the unknown. But "Lie Detector" could contribute to the career of the twins. They wrote a script about how two partner-policemen Ed Kennesaw (Ruker) and Phil Braxton (Penn) conduct interrogation using a special device, the name of which is indicated in the title of the film itself, suspected of brutal murder of an elite courtesan. This suspect is an extremely unpleasant thirty-year-old scion of a wealthy family. His name is James Walter Whalland, and he's very loose with investigators. But gradually revealing strange and sometimes disgusting events in the life of Wayland, including the fact that he suffers from temporal epilepsy and during seizures completely out of control. But that still doesn't prove he was involved in the murder. The plot twists and twists.
If you are not even a big fan of the detective thriller, but I dare advise you to watch “Lie Detector” at least because of the game of Tim Roth. By that time, he had become a star of Quentin Tarantino, starring in the great and terrible in three of his acclaimed paintings. Including in the farce with splashes of champagne "Four Rooms". Remember his extraordinary play? This is the unusual character that Tim Roth will appear before you in Lie Detector. It is absolutely impossible to predict what his hero will throw out in the next second, what his behavior will be, he scares even to the point of getting goosebumps, but again this is not a reason to call him a murderer, although he is the perfect suspect. Or maybe the capricious son of rich parents is just having fun passing all these polygraph tests? Or did he play a cat-and-mouse game? You will have to think about all this and conclude your own opinion about James Walter Wayland, who was brilliantly played by Tim Roth. If, of course, I convinced you to look at the painting.
Not so interesting, but certainly not boring characters wield Chris Penn and Michael Rucker. Braxton is not so long ago in the police and he is unlikely to have a good career in law enforcement, because his intelligence is not the highest, and moreover, he owes a large amount of money to the local underground bookmaker Mook (Burstin), who in all this story will still play a role, but only you will see it, otherwise – a spoiler, and no one likes them. But against the background of Wayland, Penn’s character is an innocent lamb, but when the truth about Kennesaw is revealed, all the interrogations and the murder case itself take on a completely different shape. Kennesaw in the precinct was called nothing but "Saint", but as is known in a quiet pool and devils are found. And what “devils” of the hero Rucker – once again I suggest you to see yourself and, believe me, there will be something to look at and from what to get a new batch of sincere emotions. As for Zellweger and Arquette, they appear in flashbacks, of which there are enough in the film, and their characters are important, but do not really affect the development of the action.
A very intriguing picture, which winds up like a snowball flying from a mountain several kilometers high. An interesting plot and its atmosphere are kept in suspense until the very end, and it is such that the eyes are rounded with amazement and it will make you think carefully again about everything you see, compare facts, remember even small episodes and then the overall picture will be clear. In Lie Detector, every episode is really important, so watch the movie carefully. Well, the acting, especially Tim Roth, makes "Lie Detector" a great pastime when you want something detective, twisted and ambiguous.
Had I not watched the movie Under Suspicion with Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman in the lead roles, perhaps the film Lie Detector would have noted as one of the best detective psychological thrillers. And of course, no matter how brilliantly fantastically good Tim Roth was, still “Under suspicion” for a more competent script, more weighty dialogues multiplied by the finest ironic humor, I consider the best. But that doesn’t mean that Josh and Jonas Pate’s movie isn’t good. On the contrary, the gloomy oppressive atmosphere, the desire to learn the truth, to get to the truth, simultaneously revealing the essence and skeletons in the closet of all the characters, make this tape very interesting and attractive, both in genre and in other aspects.
We got Mr. Welland. Stupid or not stupid, hot or simply as a result of a series of certain events, that is another question. But the son of wealthy and wealthy parents in the clutches of the police. No, he hasn't been arrested yet, and he hasn't been charged, but he's been hit hard by two cops. What do you mean hard? And this means that the miracle machine, referred to in the relevant criminal circles as a lie detector, was called for help. Of course, this machine can be fooled, but the cops themselves, too, after all, keep an eye and a nose on the check, so the proceedings will be serious.
Welland answers the questions asked by the police. The machine takes its measurements, and Detective Kennasy (Michael Rucker) takes his. With all his police creature, he senses, the kid lies. But small is not a mistake and can give more than one performance, not one performance, although with a small audience. Kennasy's job is to break this guy up. What if he's wrong? The detective is not God, but a simple mortal man.
When the clamp in the corner of the hero Tim Roth becomes inevitable, the director will come up with a quite logical, but at the same time unconventional move. And it will be an interesting sight. In the meantime, the viewer, that is, we have the opportunity to admire the game of Tim Roth. As if he is not an actor at all, but a real neurosthenic and epileptic and just a freak. Podhigisty, but with a tenacious mind and a look that has seen a lot in life, despite the fact that he is rich. And after all, the beautiful Renee Zellweger will support him brilliantly and on business. And then there's Michael Rooker. Sweat on his face and confusion on his face. And you don't know if this man is so crystal clear or if he has a stigma in his cannon. I don’t know who, but I liked this movie. Ten points is a well-deserved assessment!
The one who tells the truth about a lie is more suspicious than the one who lies.
Tim Roth is the actor who broke into the world of cinema, immediately declaring himself as a person who can hold the viewer’s attention regardless of the presence of other eminent colleagues in the frame or the sophistication of the script. It’s all about how enthusiastically he gets used to each image – you can watch it endlessly, noting all the incredible changes that an actor has to go from film to film. At the same time, Tim never sets himself the task of outplaying everyone around him - when necessary, he knows how to go into the shadows and remind himself of spontaneous bursts of activity. But here, of course, the narrative is built around his persona, although among the colleagues on the set are Renee Zellweger, Ellen Burstyn and Roseanne Arquette. That's just neither the murdered prostitute, nor the keeper of the gaming dens, nor the mother of the main character will not be remembered after watching as Wayland, who periodically freezes in a temporal epilepsy attack, performed by Roth.
A buzzing recorder, wired fingers - lie detector here is the same detail of the entourage as tables and chairs. More important is the gestures, reservations, hand positions (in the end, Roth paid tribute to this theme in Lie to Me), and the stuffy, pressing atmosphere of the interrogation room, where we meet the characters step by step. Rich and smart, but seriously ill representative of the golden not-so-youth, whose only friend was a woman of easy behavior, and two policemen with their own problems: one pathologically jealous of his wife for each pole and slowly goes mad from it, and the other is heavily indebted to bookmakers. The graceful shadow of the murdered girl hangs over this trinity, making the viewer tormented in guesses who exactly and what is involved in this confusing story. Everyone lies, as Dr. House said, but the task of a good investigator is to find out which lies are designed to mask the truth he is interested in, and which only covers household secrets and memories of past humiliations.
The stylistics of the film evokes vague memories of the late noir, saturated with psychologism and emotions, but preserved in unchanged form a visual series of forties with gloomy views of the night city and its social bottom. Working with the camera conveys the mood of each individual scene, and in the final picture it is accepted to write out unimaginable circles and diagonal spans, emphasizing the mental state of Wayland, which broke into a dizzying peak from its state of unstable equilibrium. Just do not think that the end is so clear: the Pate brothers still do not refrain from throwing the viewer the last hint, and how to interpret it is your business.
29-year-old graduate of the Department of psychology of the prestigious University James Walter Wyland, heir to a rich daddy, jew, alcoholic, drug addict and epileptic, is accused of a serious crime - the murder and dismemberment of a girl of easy behavior. During the investigation, the suspect has to engage in an unequal duel with two cops armed with a lie detector. Cult British actor Tim Roth once again demonstrates the wealth of accumulated psychopathological colors, in the range - from "just a bad boy" to the infernal genius of evil.
The consultant psychologist to whom detectives turn for help introduces them to numerous variants of epileptic excesses, and as the most telling example cites the case of the artist Van Gogh, who allegedly cut off his ear just during such a seizure. The most interesting thing here is that Roth seven years earlier just played Van Gogh in Robert Altman’s film Vincent and Theo. Presumably, after the role of a genius, he did not have much trouble taking a “bastion” on a smaller scale. In any case, thanks to Roth, this detective puzzle gets rid of the feeling of scripted contrivance, which is often the sin of such tapes.
In addition, Roth is here under the tight tutelage of actors who, although not made a star career (except that Renee Zellweger played an innocent victim here), but have long been forced to reckon with themselves. Michael Rucker, Chris Penn, Ellen Burstyn, Roseanne Arquette, like Tim Roth, prefer to work with novice directors in independent film production, because they have long understood that there are much more unpredictable scripts and original directorial moves. And if not for such an expressive actor background, the solo Roth may not sound so bright.
In addition to the exalted game, the 36-year-old Englishman draws attention to the work of the Pate brothers. Their first joint directorial project led to serious belief that in American cinema there was another related couple, able to follow the Wachowski brothers to compete with Joel and Ethan Cohen. But despite the fact that the Pates in the future could not gain a foothold in the big movie and switched to TV, this does not detract from the merits of this film. Their debut thriller-detective will be to the liking of those viewers who love well-twisted intrigues, sharp psychological duels, the struggle of strong characters and subtle play of the mind.
One problem: this low-budget project could not come out with a decent circulation on movie screens, painted for many months ahead for releases of Hollywood blockbusters. Moreover, the Liar was unlucky only because it started a month and a half after the Titanic sailed. And then, in early 1998, for this reason, not only independent, but also any other movie was rapidly sinking in cinemas. Therefore, having collected in North America a paltry half a million dollars (that is, 1200 times less than Cameron’s creation), Deceiver surrendered to the mercy of the winner and went off the screens in the third week of release.
A dark picture creates an atmosphere of anxiety. The hero of Tim Roth, possessing a phenomenal IQ, but at the same time a drunk and epileptic, despises people, hates his parents and the “secular” party in which the father-banker forces him to spin. He is drawn to the bottom of the city, where he seeks out the undisguised manifestations of man. Is he a criminal, or just an unhappy and embittered person who finds life washed away in hooliganism and misanthropy? The police are also not trusted by the viewer. Junior Edward immediately turns out to be a gambler in debt to the mafia. But decent at first glance detective Braxton has great psychological and personal problems, sometimes turning him into an angry sadist. Interrogations are increasingly like a duel, and the lie detector becomes an instrument of a duel, the outcome of which the viewer can hardly predict. The experience of detectives against the extraordinary intelligence of the suspect - the chances are almost equal. Bottom line: if you like noir crime films, consisting of misanthropy and hopelessness a little more than completely, or you like intellectual psychological thrillers-detectives - this film will be a great choice. 9 out of 10 Original
Initially stumbling upon this film, I immediately noticed that among the actors is Tim Roth, and the theme of the film is close to the notorious series with his participation "Lie Me". All this of course warmed up the interest, but I did not expect that the film would be so interesting and high-quality.
The first 20-30 minutes you get used to the gloomy style in which the whole picture is sustained. But then, when the action of the film begins to gain momentum, you sharply forget about everything and completely dissolve in this mind-blowing picture, which has a number of advantages.
The first thing I want to mention is dialogue. They're amazing here. It is thanks to them that we see how tension is constantly growing between the main characters, and with every minute the atmosphere in the small room where the main action of the film takes place is being pumped up more and more. The second thing that should be noted is the operator’s work. The fact is that many episodes are shown to the viewer in the first person, and the feeling of your personal contact with the characters of the film is created. Another thing I really liked was the flashbacks. They are not too many, but they periodically reveal the character of the characters and their personal lives. You are gradually introduced to the characters of the film, as well as the unusual situation in which they found themselves. In general, the plot itself, as a whole, is a rather complex structure, sometimes you even begin to get confused in what is happening. But apparently clever brothers Pate and tried to achieve a similar effect, which they eventually turned out with great success.
I don’t want to “open the cards” anymore. Anyone interested in this film will see it for themselves. There will be a lot of surprises.
In conclusion, Tim Roth is divine in this movie. I still don’t understand why there are so few films with him where he plays the main roles. He's just a godsend for any director. Charismatic, energy, facial expressions - everything is on top.
P.S. Now it is clear where the future Dr. Lightman was found. Probably for a very long time the name of Tim Roth will, one way or another, be associated with such an important concept as a lie.
10 out of 10