THE GOOD LIAR – Review by MaryAnn Johanson

Helen Mirren — steely, badass, worldly wise Helen Mirren — as a meek, naive widow simply ripe for the picking by Ian McKellen’s silver-fox dating-app con artist? That… seems unlikely. Helen Mirren, you say?

“Sometimes casting alone gives a movie’s game away right from the get-go, doesn’t it?” is the inevitable default position anyone with even a modicum of movie knowledge takes into The Good Liar. We cannot even be faulted for this; the movie has to be counting on it, in fact. For part of how this movie is being marketed is on the strength of its undeniably terrific cast, on our previous awareness of the sheer joy that absolutely does come from watching two masters of their craft at work. What’s more, Liar is the first time Mirren and McKellen have appeared onscreen together (they’ve costarred on stage before), and that only works as a selling point if you know what sort of actorly reputations they bring with them, and why it might be exciting to watch them square off. Continue reading…