Review of Separate Lies (2005) by Markb. — 23 Oct 2005

Screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who gingerly but sardonically peeled the lid off uppercrust indiscretions and worse in Gosford Park, does so again on a much smaller scale here. In telling the tale of two extramarital lovers who get involved in a hit-and-run accident, and the cuckolded spouse who participates in the coverup, Fellowes in his directing debut is clearly not Gosford's Robert Altman, which you probably knew going in; even at 85 minutes, the pacing gets noticeably draggy.

More problematic is that despite the three leads, Tom Wilkinson (The Full Monty, In The Bedroom), Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves, Red Dragon) and Rupert Everett (Another Country, My Best Friend's Wedding), all being outstanding actors who absolutely never disappoint (and Watson deserves special praise here because, owing to her integrity in portraying such a despicable individual, this is the first film I've ever seen her in that I didn't fall absolutely in love with her--now that's a major acting accomplishment!) the movie is frequently a singularly frustrating experience because their characters are either callous jerks or spineless wimps.

I still haven't decided what's more annoying--the fact that two-thirds of the triangle repeatedly treat the third so callously or that the third side endlessly lets them; the result (with one gratifying but only momentary exception) is a film that plays like a strangely genteel piece of S&M.

Of course, this has much to do with the characters, setting and filmmaker being so bloody civilized and British, and I amused myself throughout the picture by envisioning the same material, minus the profanities and the Jerry Springer joke, transported to our side of the ocean and filmed in black and white, playing more satisfyingly as a 1945 film noir starring Edward G.

Robinson and Barbara Stanwyck...at least until the third act, when it weirdly morphs into a gender-twisted version of a 1932 two-handkerchief tale of marital sacrifice (final shot and all) starring...

Edward G.