Dangerous Lies | Film Review

Hey Guys x

I watched this as soon as it came out without really knowing it. It was the first thing I saw when I opened Netflix, and I happened to not be in the mood for anything in particular. The plot was interesting enough that I thought that, even if it was bad, it would be a fine way to kill an hour and a half.

Katie (Camila Mendes) is a carer who is pulled into the middle of a dark secret when the man in her care suddenly dies. But are Katie and her husband Adam (Jessie T. Usher) as innocent as they make out?

This film had so much potential. The potential that it had was actually frustrating, because it wasted everything that it set up by being so disappointing!

At the beginning, I wasn't sure how to feel about it.

It starts off really fast-paced and exciting. But once it settles into itself, it slows down to the point where it kind of loses everything that it sets up at the beginning. In addition to that, after the first five minutes, it does take a really long time to get going again.

It felt like a few different plots from predictable movies were put together in a way that made the final product seem unpredictable and original, if you don't look to closely. Or at least, that's what I thought they were going for - something familiar, yet unpredictable.

About halfway through the movie, you realise how much potential the film has. It can go in so many different directions, and this makes it so tense and eerie in some parts that your heart is actually racing.
You don't know who to trust - one minute you're suspicious, and the next you believe everything that everyone is saying. It did a really good job of painting these characters in a variety of different lights.

The more that's revealed, the less everything makes sense. It felt like they didn't just want to make a simple story, they wanted to make it unpredictable. But in doing this, everything became really confusing and the simplicity of the story was lost.

And then the ending happened. And everything that was good about the film got destroyed as quickly as it was set up.

Not only were there a few loose ends that were set up with potential and will never be explained, but the reveal in itself made so much of the film seem completely pointless.

The most disappointing thing about the film, as I've said already, is the potential that it had. There really were so many different reveals that could have happened. Without giving anything away, the film took the worst route it could take. I can't think of anything that would have been worse for them to do.
And the thing is, it's not a bad film. There was the right amount of tension, there was a really good story to work with, you were invested in these characters - it got so much right! But in a film like this, where the reveal and reason is everything, it fell flat.

Overall, I enjoyed this film to a point, but the ending means that I probably wouldn't watch it again. Which is a shame, because it could have been so good!

5.5/10

Lou