Lying (2006)

Director: M. Blash

Writer: M. Blash

Starring: Chloe Sevigny, Jena Malone, Leelee Sobieski

Rated: Not Rated

 Well…you either love it, hate it, or just don’t get it. Let’s just say I fell into somewhat of a “what the heck am I watching” type of category.

Lying is a fairly short film in which we join four young women for a weekend at Chloe Sevigny’s character’s country house in upstate New York. Things all seem fairly normal until the three guests – especially Jena Malone’s character, Grace – begin to notice that their host is actually quite a peculiar young woman. And, my friends, that is all I will say about the plot, though to be honest I’m really not leaving that much out as that is really all that happens in this movie.

Now I was really looking forward to seeing this movie for a few reasons. For one I adore Jena Malone and Chloe Sevigny simply because of their amazing talents, but I have also recently discovered how much I enjoy filmmaking as well as film analysis, and was excited to see the outcome of a movie made on a budget of just $150,000.

Unfortunately, I have more negative things to say than positive about Lying. This could possibly be because I had pretty high expectations, but I watched it with my mom, a documentary filmmaker, and she didn’t seem to enjoy it either for similar reasons. In terms of cinematography I merely thought it was lazy. Now I can handle very low budget filmmaking – in my mind a movie doesn’t have to look extremely cinematic in order to it to be good. I film things on my phone all the time because I can’t afford a nice camera at the moment, and I can honestly say - and I hope I don’t sound stuck up when I say it – that I might have been able to film Lying a tad better. Now unless the camera was meant to be extremely shaky and grainy at times then never mind, but to me (and my mom) it almost felt as if whoever shot the movie, wasn’t trying as hard as they could and should have.

In terms of the plot, I thought it was an extremely interesting one. I won’t spoil anything, but having the main character, or host in this case, have the “problem” Chloe Sevigny had, made for a very interesting story and excellent set up for a fascinating character study. But…I feel as if the director didn’t develop her character quite enough – or really any of the characters – for the audience to really care. While mysterious characters are great and fun to watch and attempt to figure out, the audience still needs something to work with, and all we have in this movie is just very odd behavior along with blah sub-characters whose only purpose is to portray the confusion we’re feeling as we watch their painfully awkward encounters.

Now even though I wasn’t thoroughly impressed with the movie as a whole, there were smaller aspects I did rather enjoy: the performances and a specific visual detail that served as a little bit of symbolism (something I always appreciate!) As awkward and long as the scenes could become what with the uncomfortably stale dialogue, it did feel real thanks to the performances given by the four main actresses. I mean think about it…a girl you hardly know, who happens to be a bit whacko, has invited you to spend time at her country house with two other girls you’ve never met. Yeah that definitely calls for some awkward moments don’y ya think? As for the small detail, keep an eye out for the colors red and white – especially on Chloe Sevigny’s pants – and think about what it might signify. If they did it on purpose, I actually think it was pretty clever.

Anyway, enough of that! I would not say this movie is terrible, in fact it’s kind of far from it. As I said at the beginning of this review you may love it, hate it or just sit there staring at the TV thinking “whaaattt.” Either way, I found it entertaining (though very slow at times) as someone interested in filmkaing and production. Enjoy, if you end up watching it!