Review of Where the Truth Lies (1999) by James K — 05 Oct 2006

This is a hidden gem of a movie told with a stylish storytelling methods and intertwining time-frame. We are introduced to the comedy duo: Lanny and Vince, one happened to "swing both ways" in term of his sexual orientation, whether or not influenced only by drugs, and the other more eccentric and volatile. We are given two voice-over, one from one of Lanny, the more maniac of the two who is in the process of completing his auto-biography, and the other from Karen, a writer keen to write the biography of Vince and is happy to get inside stories secretively from both Lanny and Vince.

The key moment in the history of Lanny and Vince happened 15 years ago during a marathon show for fundraising for polio when a beautiful hotel maid was found naked and doped in the bathroom, dead. The film takes us back and forth between now and 15 years ago, and to and fro between the two narrators: Lanny and Karen, where Lanny tells the story from his perspective and Karen gathers information from various places and put them together.

Where the truth lies is the question asked by the movie as we hear the story bits by bits progressively. It probably wouldn't take long for the attentive ones to realize the very important clue lies in the line Lanny spoke into a young girl's ear during the fundraising show. And that young girl grew up to become Karen, who is one of the two "voice-over". Then as we know that Karen idolizes these duo, it gave me a thrill to find myself questioning whether she is lying or not!

This is a superb detective movie due to it's unique way of storytelling gives me great satisfaction. You won't know who killed the beautiful maid until the very end of the film, and you probably won't succeed in making the right guess. But it's fun guessing anyway!