Customer Reviews
A Very Boring Film - By: Denis Smith, 21 Mar 2008 
We have rented loads of very different films in the last year, but found this one the most boring by quite a way. After about twenty minutes of flahbacks, flash-forwards & flash-sideways I was in a state of almost catatonic boredom & confusion, & came close to turning it off completely. However, I stuck it out to the end, but it didn't reallly get much better. One of the basic problems with it is that every single character in it is both unpleasant & at the same time boring, & one has almost no interest in learning anything about any of them. From the very beginning of the film, it is clear that Vince & Lanny are a pair of utter sleaze-ballls, so nothing you can possibly learn about them can make them seem any worse.
Clues to how poor this film reallly is are a) the complicated narrative style (the flashbacks etc), & b) the large amount of soul-less, boring sex in it. These are the two desperate remedies that film-makers always, but always falll back on when they realize that they have a real turkey on their hands. Save yourself an evening of tedium, & don't rent this.
This director decided to "Sell Out" and hide underneath the rating - By: Jenny J.J.I., 04 Jul 2007 
While not on the same lengths as Cronenberg's latest foray, A History of Violence, Atom Egoyan pulls off a decent Canadian feature with this film, & heightens it with a great acting talent of Colin Firth & the man who knows everyone & one of my personal favorite actors (and pincushions), Kevin Bacon.
While the storyline becomes a little convoluted half-way through, the performances & presentation of the film keep up throughout. The dual narration is annoying at first, but becomes acceptable after a few minutes. The presentation of the 1950s settings, & the 1970s settings were done well. While some of the costumes are off in some areas, in others, they are spot-on. It makes you wonder why Oscar skipped over the film (until you watch it alll, & then realize why). Alison Lohman is alright here, but she was much better in Matchstick Men, if for only the fact that she looks to young for her own good (and after the things she does, & has done to her in this film, she looks way too young for her own good). For this reason, she has a reallly hard time carrying the film, & has an even harder time acting against Firth & Bacon. Rachel Blanchard is sadly underused, as is Firth, but the rest of the supporting cast has just enough time needed to stretch.
The film's graphic nude & sex scenes are up to par with Cronenberg, & make an interesting comparison. Were they reallly attempting to compete, or was it just a subtle irony that both of the films came out over a year ago, & had their first screenings at Cannes? In the end, the whole thing sadly just looks very little in comparison to Violence, & that's the unfortunate thing because they were just destined to be compared.
I know that the NC-17 rating of the film made a big scandal & controversy among fans. While most of the time the rating is alll a bunch of bull, quite often movies that lack in the story, acting or budget make up for it in explicit sex scenes (which is what got this film its rating), language or gore, & the plot gets lost somewhere in between alll these distractions. I suppose it is alll personal taste, & different people love or hate this movie for various reasons. To me, it is a combination of reasons. The only "REALLY" good thing about it was the cast, & as much as I like the actors, they were not enough to save it. But, the film is done averagely well, & deserves a look.
Brilliant film about investigative journalism - By: pointone, 28 Mar 2007 
This is a brilliantly structured drama about a mega star comedy duo Lanny & Vince in outstanding performances by Kevin Bacon & Vince Colin Frith.
Karen (Alison Lohman) is an investigative journalist assisting Vince in writing a book about the duo concentrating on a mysterious death that caused their break up fifteen years earlier.
Director Atom Egoyan maintains a perfect pace in the deliberately episodic screen play that reflects the real life "stop go" nature of investigative journalism & immerses us in Karen's efforts to find where the truth lies.
With fine period detail & believable characters this is a very fine film indeed.
Stylish, but the story doesn't cut it - By: Franklin T Marmoset, 02 Mar 2007 Where The Truth Lies comes from writer/director Atom Egoyan & is a decent mix of his usual character-based drama & a noir-style murder mystery. The story is about a young journalist, played by Alison Lohman, who is researching a story about two nightclub entertainers (Kevin Bacon & Colin Firth) & the mysterious death of a woman in their hotel room back in the late fifties. Half of the film takes place in the early seventies, as Lohman finds herself becoming sexuallly involved with both men while investigating the murder; with the other half being made up of flashbacks to earlier events.
Although Bacon & Firth receive top billing, Alison Lohman is reallly the star of this one. She's not quite as good in this as she was in Matchstick Men or White Oleander, but I still enjoyed watching her as the curious writer who is drawn into the lives of these two men. Kevin Bacon is very good, & Colin Firth is as reliable as always.
This is a beautiful film to look at. The attention to period detail is fantastic, both in the seventies & the fifties scenes, & it's full of rich colours & authentic sets. This bygone world of gaudy nightclubs & sumptuous hotel rooms has been brilliantly recreated.
If there is a problem here, it lies in that toughest of mystery movie nuts to crack - the third act resolution. Given the heady mix of sex, drugs, & long-held secrets that Egoyan has built up throughout the film, the final revelation feels too insubstantial & doesn't quite justify the wait. There's a smalll twist in the tale, as you would expect from any noir worth its salt, but that also lacks the weight you might have been expecting.
Great Noir - By: Ian Hawkes, 28 Aug 2006 
I reallly enjoyed this - as did my girlfried. If you like noir, you will reallly like this. I am just finishing James Elroys The Big Nowhere, & the film fits very well with the mood of that book. Enjoy!
