Simply Perfect

Best movie ever!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Emily Watson gives one of the finest performances of her career as a cheating wife and manages to elicit our disgust, our anger, our sympathy, our compassion, and our love all at the same time. It is an incredible acting feat and it is so smoothly and beautifully done that we don't realize the sort of magic she is working on us as it happens. For her to play someone unlikable is difficult enough because she is such a lovely human being and she acts voraciously against her nature. She also is unafraid to appear as a naturally beautiful woman, not a skin and bone imitation of a real woman but a full bodied, passionate, mature woman who men can not help feeling drawn too. Her magnetism is palpable and she reveals a bit of the sexual turmoil that roils within. This is the kind of woman who tries to repress her volcanic sexuality and struggles to reign it in but finally surrenders to it completely. It is a brave choice indeed for Emily Watson to make her character so repugnant at first and only an actor so skilled and confident could pull it off. Watson is known for her limitless creative, artistic courage and the risks she takes in her roles are nothing less than astounding. Ultimately, her humanity and true love win the audience over as we witness her become a heartbreaking character who we can not help but embrace. Watson transforms an adulterer into a tragic and soulful companion, committed to her lover, and self-sacrificing rather than the selfish monster who devastated the husband played by the excellent Tom Wilkinson. This, however, is a showcase for Emily Watson's superb portrayal of a very complicated character. It is cinematic gold and anyone who experiences Emily Watson's incredibly brilliant work in this film will feel much the richer for it.

I agree with other commenters that the acting was intense (life-like? depends on whose life it's supposed to be), but what irritated me most was the contempt of law.A cyclist is killed in a car accident. This certainly is a crime, but the police (embodied by a single black, and obviously contempted, officer) try to solve the case in vain. The titular Lies prevent that. And the second funeral, of the adultering "milord", seems to be of more interest than the first, the accident victim.I like cynical movies where sympathetic perpetrators win in the end, but here? I'd have preferred better police work (even with Miss Marple or such) that would have solved the case.

I gave it a seven only because the acting is good. And of course by that I mean Wilkinson. The other two principals were "decent". But the characters themselves...what on earth was so bad about the character Wilkinson played (James Manning)? I didn't see him behaving like the martinet Emily Watson accused him of being. Bill Bule, on the other hand, was an insufferable jerk who I was praying would meet an extremely brutal and prolonged demise. Who was I kidding? Tom Wilkinson isn't Paul Bettany after all. So what on EARTH did Emily Watson's (Anne) character SEE in him???? She herself admitted he was pretty much a piece of offal in his treatment of her. Why would she even want to be in the same TOWN as him, to say nothing of the same "room".I noticed some other reviews, one person said she "cried" at the end, to witness James' tragedy. ??? WHAT tragedy? What, you mean losing an imbecile who finds someone like Bill Bule AMUSING???!!! Give us a break.

I'm a huge fan of both Emily Watson (Breaking The Waves) and Tom Wilkinson (Normal) and was amused to see them upstaged by Rupert Everett (Dellamorte Dellamore) in this shockingly rather minor movie that had all the ingredients to be so much more. The too brief scenes in which he portrays a languid, infinitely entitled, worthless son of a rich Lord are spot-on and entertaining. But for a love triangle there was remarkably little chemistry to speak of between anyone. The music was annoyingly movie-of-the-week quality, and the voice-over jarring and totally unnecessary. Clearly the work of a first-time director with a small budget who either lacked or didn't sufficiently heed good advice. Too bad.I can appreciate how the people you kind of hate at the beginning are the ones you kind of like at the end, and vice-versa, so there is some sort of character arc, at least in terms of perception. For example, Watson's character, while refreshingly honest to her husband about her feelings for another man, began to grate on me near the end, particularly when she announced to her husband that she simply had absolutely no control over her actions, and later when she simply declared that she would be moving back into their marital flat, with no asking of permission, no apologies offered. And I went from disliking Wilkinson's control freak / moral relativist character to sort of understanding him and not really wanting him to change (unlike his wife).This movie awkwardly morphed from a whodunit to a "Love Story" or "Steel Magnolias" illness drama without sufficiently informing me of the fact, so I was left distractedly guessing what the next plot twist might be long after they had all been revealed (Was it the Lord driving the car? The Lord's dog?). The scene where the Lord visits Wilkinson and relates how brave Watson is, the bestest nurse any dying boyfriend could ever ask for, Florence Nightingale incarnate, etc. was OK until he started over-the-top sobbing like a baby. Good God! If you ask me she's just another flitty rich person with way too much time on her hands, and so she drives her hard working, well providing spouse crazy with unnecessary drama. Her screwing around was just another way to occupy her empty life; the dying guy thing was an added bonus for her as it somehow made her previous actions completely above reproach.Look, everyone would have been better off if Wilkinson had just left her for his secretary, who seemed to appreciate him for who he was. Instead he acted like an abused dog, his open craving for his wife's affection increasing with every kick she gives him. I'm not anti PC or anything, it just didn't ring true, even after taking into account all of the harsh realities of middle age we all tend to face. The ending for me was (and not the director's intention I am certain) depressing. The movie spent the last 80 minutes convincing me that these two people just don't belong together, so I found no joy in the promise of their relationship continuing. I'm not above wanting my emotions manipulated by a story, it just has to be somewhat plausible and not hackneyed. Is that asking too much?My score: 4/10