Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 29 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 11 Ratings

  • Starring: Alison Lohman, Colin Firth, Kevin Bacon
  • Summary: A provocative film about interconnected lives that are shattered by ill-fated acts of deception and ambition. Shifting effortlessly between mob-run clubs of the mid-50's and glamorous Hollywood Hills mansions of 1972, the film explores the dark, beguiling, and inevitably destructive side of fame and fortune. The result is a tense and atmospheric mystery that uses cinematic sleight-of-hand to challenge any preconceptions about "truth." (Serendipity Point Films) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 29
  2. Negative: 4 out of 29
  1. Atom Egoyan has delivered a big, slick and sexy mystery in Where the Truth Lies, turning the Rupert Holmes novel into a sumptuous tale of show business hype and duplicity.
  2. Reviewed by: Alan Morrison
    80
    A rare film in which the style IS the substance.
  3. Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    60
    Atom Egoyan's most mainstream and genre-oriented picture in his 20-year career applies a thick noir lacquer to a jumbled, time-jumping tale of a young female journalist prying the facts out of the aging entertainers and their cronies.
  4. 38
    An erotic thriller. It is also an Atom Egoyan picture, which means any claims either to actual eroticism or conventional thrills are theoretical at best.

See all 29 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 1 out of 5
  1. GaleG.
    9
    Smart, intelligent departure for Egoyan. Entertaining whodunit surrounded by strong cast including ever surprising Colin Firth. Who knew among all his other talents he could scat? What's next gangster rap? A slick POV film that begs to be viewed repeatedly to see all the nuances. Cheers to a job well done All! Expand
  2. MicheleA.
    9
    Firth and Bacon were wonderful, cinematography and music lush. More enjoyable for the aura and characterizations than for the plot. Don't let the mixed reviews keep you from seeing it! Expand
  3. ChadS.
    7
    In the publishing industry, there are two types of autobiography: the memoir and the unauthorized tell-all. Karen(Alison Lohman) is an aspiring investigative journalist(imagine Kitty Kelley with a moral compass) writing a competing book about the life of Vince(Colin Firth), who comprised one-half of a comedy team that she admired as a polio-stricken lass. "Where the Truth Lies", Atom Egoyan's least painstakingly esoteric film since "Speaking Parts", is quite the departure for the celebrated Canadian filmmaker of Armenian descent; this time out, he's extending an olive branch out to the hoi polloi instead of catering strictly to a film festival jury(the only people alive who screened "Calendar") and movie buffs(I watched "Ararat" three times, sad, I know). On the surface, "Where the Truth Lies" thrills and titilates, but the central idea that Egoyan really wants to get across, echoes the same sentiment in Todd Solondz's "Storytelling", which is that all non-fiction is basically fiction. Each voice-over narrative, Vince's and Karen's, miss the truth by inches(white lies), or by miles(lies; a conspiracy to cover up the real story). "Where the Truth Lies" is Egoyan's first attempt at genre filmmaking and it's mostly successful, in spite of Lohman's inability(like Scarlett Johanson in "The Black Dahlia") to evoke the Hollywood sirens of yesteryear. Rachel Blanchard(who plays Maureen) is more successful, and should've had more screen time. Expand
  4. Kevin
    3
    Doesn't really make narrative sense. Characters are never really fleshed out. Not such a good adaptation of an excellent book.

See all 5 User Reviews