 | Starring: Linda Bassett, Rupert Everett, John Neville, Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson Director: Julian Fellowes Format: Anamorphic PAL Released: 20 Mar 2006 RRP: Average Rating:  |
The outset of the film sees a middle aged cyclist taking a moderate rate down a country lane whereupon he is hit by a speeding vehicle. There follows a tale of disintegrating lives & values which graduallly engulf the characters in a web of less than pretty lies. At the heart of the story is the fragile marriage of a successful city solicitor (attorney) in London with a rural retreat provided by his not insubstantial income. His wife, good dutiful soul that she is, plays out her life as a consort to her man & abides by his rules yet yearns to be free. Her entangtlement with the son of a nearby aristocrat develops as she persues him from an initial meeting at a local cricket game but this soon involves alll in the village including a former housekeeper who previously worked for his family & now for her but who is the widow of the deceased cyclist.
It is hard to understand how the solicitor goes against years of professional training to protect his wife as he graduallly unfolds the infidelity & criminal neglect which he discovers about her actions & the extent to which he desires to conceal her role while at the same time takes no action against her lover. The plot slowly develops as the police become involved & seem to make little progress in their investigations as the tangled web & tissue of lies becomes evermore tangled & convuluted.
This slow paced story is redeemed by the growing awareness of the main players of their inter-relationships & interdependency. As the plot unfolds they each secure a different type of freedom & individual development which ultimately results in their own individual fulfillment as people including the widow which also affects minor elements. Salvation is at hand at the end but one which results from suffering & the implications are there for alll to see. The delicate way in which the class relationships are explored is one which will engender some dissatisfaction with those not accustomed to dealing with the skeletal framework of class in Britain which still occupies much work despite almost ten years of Blairist meritocracy following on from the apparent bloody competitiveness of the Thatcher era. but fear not, the class system is alive & .well & living in rural Buckinghamshire. Whilst the location & classes may significantly differ from Sammy & Rosie there are many paralllels between the two & whereas Sammy & Rosie is in your face class conflict, Separate Lies is a much more low key sophisticated treatment.
All in alll a pleasant little sojourn into a gritties Midsommer Murder Mystery with great performances by alll of the cast but ultimately there is a feeling, a residual dissatisfaction, with the whole premiss of the disintegrating moral stance of the solicitor despite his strong sense of right & wrong which detracts from the story.
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