Lies We Tell

Thought this was going to be an action thriller based on the photo and it seemed to have promise with the cast, but about 45 minutes in with little plot development, mediocre sound and no subtitles, I fast forwarded and then watched the last 10 minutes. Not the best script but the actors did what they could with what they had to work with. Good costumes and cultural references though.

A Pakistani family living in England. A patriarch who is holding on to the traditions of his culture, by forcing his two daughters to marry money. The oldest daughter Amber who is a lawyer, is living a secret life as a rich-man's mistress and is rebelling her patriarch dad, not to force her younger sister into a marriage, to the same man she herself got away from. Donald (Gabriel Byrne) is helping Amber. Donald has no knowledge of Amber's culture and what they call "honour" so it ends like it ends for many Pakistani girls who are dishonoured. The first hour I had no clue where this movie was heading to. 2 times I was ready to leave this movie, but glad I did not. It is confusing yes, but I think this movie pictures the distance and understanding of the brutal patriarch Pakistan culture. A culture where a brother, a father or husband kills his daughter, sister or wife, in the name of something called honour? Disgusting yes, but most murders in the west are also related to "crime passionnel" or jalousie, ex boy/girlfriends ex men or wife's. Now one thing is sure, I need to see this movie at least one more time.

It's almost a shame ... there are many things here that I did like ... but then it also has a lot of things that make your skin crawl too. Jumping from too easy to the expected .. to the almost ridiculous. Evil can be seen as pure evil ... and then there is comically evil too. Acting wise there are some really good performances, some of the things the script really lets the actors down though. Quite the shame as I already said. I'd wish there was more of Harvey Keitel in this too, but you can't get everything you want all the time, now can you?

Just saw this in a film festival. Sadly it has the potential to be a good topical movie on cultural boundaries, integration and hypocrisy. We get arranged marriages, Sex for college fees, drug dealing, murder, sex tapes, poaching, family rows and a large dollop of last of the summer wine type scenes. It is very confusing and the editing is all over the place. Gabriel byrne's character is a bit of a mess. Characters turn up for a scene (his wife) and are never seen again. Gabriel byrne shoots some bottles of home brew and flies a kite. Dogs seem to mean something. The main female character is excellent but is let down badly by the rest of the movie. The Pakistani wedding looks like a bit of fun. The pivotal final scene is unintentionally funny and it involves taking a very very long time to drive a very very short distance. Will pass a confusing couple of hours.

This is one of those movies that looks great on paper, an intelligent idea, a Movie worth doing, an idea and purpose worth pursuing. So you get two very good or great actors to make sure it works, Harvey and Gabriel and they do their best but the movie/script just does not work, it comes across too boring. I like both these actors but if the script and pace of a movie is all wrong then the finished article is too.