A MOST UNSAVORY 'TRUTH'.Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic A FRACTURED Hollywood fairy tale fairy tale Simple narrative typically of folk origin dealing with supernatural beings. Fairy tales may be written or told for the amusement of children or may have a more sophisticated narrative containing supernatural or obviously improbable events, scenes, and personages that is as unconvincing as it is unsavory, Atom Egoyan's ``Where the Truth Lies'' fails both as a tawdry slice of film noir film noir (French; “dark film”) Film genre that offers dark or fatalistic interpretations of reality. The term is applied to U.S. films of the late 1940s and early '50s that often portrayed a seamy or criminal underworld and cynical characters. and as some kind of truth-telling expose into the private lives of the rich and infamous. It's destined des·tine tr.v. des·tined, des·tin·ing, des·tines 1. To determine beforehand; preordain: a foolish scheme destined to fail; a film destined to become a classic. 2. to be remembered solely for its three-way sex scene involving Kevin Bacon, Rachel Blanchard and a very un-Darcy-like Colin Firth, a bit of business that, like the rest of the movie, is less titillating tit·il·late v. tit·il·lat·ed, tit·il·lat·ing, tit·il·lates v.tr. 1. To stimulate by touching lightly; tickle. 2. To excite (another) pleasurably, superficially or erotically. than tiresome. The serious-minded Egoyan wants to turn his source material - Rupert Holmes' 2003 glittery whodunit novel - into a treatise on how appearances can be deceiving in Tinseltown (hardly a lightning-bolt revelation), and in the process he saps the material of show-biz brio that might have made the story more persuasive. The movie's jumbled narrative structure doesn't help, nor does a thoroughly miscast mis·cast tr.v. mis·cast, mis·cast·ing, mis·casts 1. To cast in an unsuitable role. 2. To cast (a role, play, or film) inappropriately. Alison Lohman, playing the movie's pushy push·y adj. push·i·er, push·i·est Disagreeably aggressive or forward. push  i·ly adv. Nancy Drew surrogate. The movie means to unfurl the sudden breakup of a wildly popular 1950s comedy act that's obviously modeled on Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Lanny Morris (Bacon) is the anything-goes, wild-and-crazy guy paired with suave British foil Vince Collins (Firth). Egoyan doesn't spend much time creating three-dimensional characters, figuring we know the type of politically incorrect Rat Packer pallies he's presenting here, men's men who win the hearts of dames and the admiration of less-cool males. Lanny and Vince are swingin' from the highest branches of the tree of life until the nude corpse of a beautiful young woman is found in the bathtub of their hotel suite. Who was she? How did she get there? Why does Lanny, 15 years later, erupt into a violent rage at the mere appearance of shellfish? Egoyan will answer all these questions, though by the time he does, the movie feels as stiff as that body in the tub. That's because to get to the answers, Egoyan jerks you back and forth in time, using multiple narrators to provide some sort of shifting ``Rashomon''-like perspective. In the 1970s, we see journalist Karen (Lohman) trying to ascertain where the truth lies, both for personal and professional reasons. She meets Lanny and Vince, ring-a-ding-dings them, learns some sordid stories and creates a few new debauched de·bauch v. de·bauched, de·bauch·ing, de·bauch·es v.tr. 1. a. To corrupt morally. b. To lead away from excellence or virtue. 2. chapters of her own. It's not exactly a stunner stunner device used in abattoirs to stun an animal so that it is unconscious when it is bled out. concussion stunner a captive-bolt, nonpenetrating device, activated by a standard bullet. that Egoyan (``The Sweet Hereafter'') drained the wit and sexiness from Holmes' source material. The man's film resume isn't exactly a barrelful bar·rel·ful n. pl. bar·rel·fuls The amount that a barrel can hold. Noun 1. barrelful - the quantity that a barrel (of any size) will hold barrel containerful - the quantity that a container will hold of laughs. But to deliver a mess like this that sports a central female character completely lacking any trace of recognizable humanity is something of a shocker shock·er n. One that startles, shocks, or horrifies, as a sensational story or novel. Noun 1. shocker - a shockingly bad person bad person - a person who does harm to others 2. , certainly more surprising than anything you'll see on screen. Unless, of course, you believe in the depth of Katie Holmes' love for Tom Cruise. Then all bets are off. This movie will rock your world. Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672 glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com WHERE THE TRUTH LIES - One and one half stars (Not rated: strong sexual content, graphic dialogue, some violence) Starring: Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, Alison Lohman. Director: Atom Egoyan. Running time: 1 hr. 48 min. Playing: Pacific's Sherman Oaks 5; Laemmle's Playhouse 7 in Pasadena; Landmark's NuWilshire in Santa Monica; ArcLight in Hollywood. In a nutshell: A Martin-and-Lewis team from the '50s gets down and dirty in this jumbled and unsavory take on the dark side of fame. |
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