WHERE THE TRUTH LIES

Canada, 2005, 108 minutes, Colour.
Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, Alison Lohman, David Hayman, Rachel Blanchard, Maury Chaykin.
Directed by Adam Egoyan.

Some critics will have to get over their shock (and disapproval) that Egoyan has left his serious themes and treatment for LA Confidential territory. Some of their denunciations seemed a touch hysterical. After all, a director can do as he or she pleases, not bound by academic expectations or limits. And Egoyan has done Where the Truth Lies very well indeed, a screenplay adapted from a crime novel, multi-dimensional in its creation of characters, multi-layered in its themes and use of time frames and piecing the jigsaw together.

The setting is 1972. A young journalist begins to write the biography of a stand-up comedian and his partner who played an important role in her life when she had recovered from polio and was a guest on their 1957 telethon. She is obviously interested in doing a ‘Citizen Kane’, but finds herself in deeper emotional waters than she was prepared for as well as a mystery which she ultimately solves. Egoyan recreates the showbiz world of the 1950s, its glitz, its popular celebrities and the scandal potential behind the scenes. He makes the glossy world of 1972 (pre-Watergate) a place where the truth actually lies for protection.

Kevin Bacon shows himself yet again to be a versatile performer, comedy shtick as well as deadly serious. Colin Firth relishes the opportunity to distance himself from his Mr Darcys (Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones). And Allison Lohman proves she is one of the rising stars to keep watch for. It just shows you what a serious director like Atom Egoyan can do with a genre piece.

1. The work of Egoyan? His focus on themes of relationships, voyeurism, betrayal? Introducing these themes into a film noir? With a lighter touch in the context of murder mystery and journalistic probe?

2. The adaptation of a novel, bringing the characters to life, the re-creation of the times, the situations? The various pieces of a puzzle and their coming together by the end?

3. The atmosphere of the 1950s, the world of showbiz, glamour, the Mafia as front, the Mafia and the connections with entertainers? Telethons and their conduct, the audiences and fans, celebrities and fans? Comic routines? The affluence of the entertainers? The background of sex, drugs and violence? The continued potential for scandal? The role of the police? Cover-ups? The sinister valet – who cleans up everything?

4. The contrast with the 1970s, the brighter use of colours, sunlight? The United States in the 70s, affluence, journalistic inquiries, money, cover-ups, book publication, opening up of scandals?

5. The ambiguity of the title, truth and lies – as well as where the truth does lie? Lies, protection, cover-ups? Truth and lies, good and evil?

6. The introduction to Lanny and Vince? The similarity to Martin and Lewis combination comics? The straight man and the tough man? The visualising of their routines, verbal, interactions, who controlled whom? Vince as British giving a different tone? Giving Lanny respectability? Vince and his charm giving the audience permission to like the two? Their role on the telethons? Their success?

7. The night, the opening, the ironies of that night? Karen and her presence as a little girl, Lanny whispering – and at the end his being sorry? Karen and Bonnie, love for Lanny?

8. Karen in the 1970s, her commission, the publishers? The interviews with Vince? Conditions, her research, seeing the different chapters, the discussions with the lawyers and the chapters being sent to her? Her beginning to piece together the story? The mystery of who supplied the chapters for her to read?

9. The chapters, the structure of the flashbacks, the different points of view? Audiences piecing together what actually happened on the night of Maureen’s death? The cumulative effect, the history of Lanny and Vince, their sexual activity, girls, prostitutes? Lanny and his attitudes towards women? The different versions of Maureen? Student, the interview with Lanny, the room service? A nice girl? Yet the stories of the threesome, the prostitutes, seeing her predatory? The possibility of her being a blackmailer? Her death?

10. The picture of the Mafia, Solly as the boss, dumb, rude, insistent? The irony of the dead body, it being transferred to New York, the lobster crates? The interviews with Lanny and Vince? Who was trying to avoid the interviews or not? The irony of the body and Karen realising after the refusal at the meal?

11. Vince’s story, his wanting to write a book? Lanny and his script? Their participation in the events, Karen’s interview? Alice, the hospital? Vince and his allowing the interviews with Karen, his suspicions of her, setting her up with the drugs, the lesbian sex, the photos and the potential blackmail? Her reaction, her contract, her defying Vince? His killing himself?

12. Her meeting Lanny in the plane, remembering, Irv? The discussion? The date, the awkwardness, her not telling Lanny the truth? Not watching the television, the meal and the sex, no note? The later explanations?

13. Lanny, serious, meeting Karen at Vince’s, his anger? Blaming her for Vince’s death?

14. Karen and her visit to Maureen’s mother, the suicide and Hell, her Catholic faith, theology? Her going to visit the mother at the end, not telling her the truth about Maureen? The symbolism of the tree?

15. The character of Reuben, his being in the background, quiet, dutiful? Yet sinister? Meeting him in the market? The issue of the tape, the price? His always being there? Quiet and grateful? The irony of the truth, his being the killer? The tape and Vince, his hold over Lanny and Vince? Lanny’s reaction? The locked doors, the night, his killing Maureen?

16. The piecing together of the truth – but it not being for Maureen’s mother?

17. The effect of this story? The graphic explicitness of some of the sequences? Sex and violence, language? The audience being immersed in this kind of ambiguous world of show business, the Mafia, cover-ups?

18. The relationship between Vince and Lanny, homoerotic overtones, the visualising of Vince’s crush on Lanny, the sexual encounter? Real or imagined?