Separate Lies DVD Review:

Adultery films can be quite difficult to watch if they are done right, and this is no exception. It is not a pleasant topic, but definitely an interesting one. Separate Lies deals with choices and trust, but it also raises some great questions. We all know that we should be able to trust our husband or wife, but what if it was known that they couldn’t be trusted in certain situations? The lead character in Separate Lies has the option of keeping his wife away from temptation, but because he desperately wants her to be someone he can trust, he allows and even encourages temptation only to be furious when his wife is too weak to resist. There are no winners in a film like this, but there are some incredible ideas within this thriller that make it far more thought provoking than it could have been.

Based on the novel “A Way Through the Woods” by Nigel Balchin, Separate Lies tells the story of a seemingly happy marriage between a successful business man and his forgetful wife. The life as a proper wife begins to wear on Anne (Emily Watson) over the years and although she loves her husband, James(Tom Wilkinson), she begins an affair with a cocky neighbor, Bill (Rupert Everett). Bill doesn’t require anything of Anne and it is a refreshing break to be carefree, until there is an accident one night. Bill and Anne accidentally run a man down on their way home and this revelation along with the affair brings all three of them together in a plan to keep the accident quiet.

Wilkinson and Watson are great as a married couple, showing a certain amount of comfort with each other that can easily be replaced by irritation, and Everett is obnoxiously arrogant at just the right moments. All of the performances are great and the material is top notch as well. There is a great deal more drama than I would have imagined from a film that claims to be a thriller. There are some moments of suspense, but the hearts of the characters seem in more danger than anything else.

The suspense elements in the film are done simply, and they are even resolved long before the film is over. Although the film starts out with the accident, the conclusion has nothing to do with it. It may have worked better to have the focus be on the relationships, because long after the suspense leaves the film, the heartache remains. It is a great film about infidelity and love, and it shows how impossible it is to let go of another person sometimes. The DVD is a double sided disc, with both widescreen and full screen versions of the film.



Ryan Izay