Brilliant Lies

Gia Carides plays Susy, a good time girl sue=ing Gary (Anthony LaPaglia) for seven months of sexual harassment culminating in a physical attack one night in the office. Gary adamantly denies any wrongdoing but Susy is equally determined to be heard and the two slog it out in a tribunal and, eventually, court. Williamson nicely sets up an ambivalence in the audience’s mind by making Susy seem to be a calculating opportunist of easy morals and Gary a patronizing macho-man who may not be the predator he is being painted out to be. Either could be lying, or telling the truth, and there is no way of telling until the film’s very end although the way that Franklin at least (I have not seen or read Williamson's play) resolves the quandry arguably works against the credibility of the narrative as it seems wantonly self-destructive for the guilty party to take it to the point of a hearing. Perhaps this is supposed to be read as fatal hubris . Williamson also add depth by introducing a parallel story involving Susy’s lesbian sister, Kate (Zoe Carides) and bringing in the sister’s own childhood experience with the male libido in the form of their alcoholic. womanizing father (Ray Barrett).

Often films based on plays struggle to deal with the naturalism that cinema affords and at times, the performances here, particularly from Barrett and Michael Veitch as the girl’s ineffectual brother are too mannered for the camera and the film loses momentum whenever they are on screen. But LaPaglia and the Carides sisters are excellent and the film crackles with the conflict between the two leads (who in real life subsequently married) whilst Zoe Carides provides a wistfully empathetic foil to her sibling. Franklin’s direction is efficient and includes a nicely handled flashback sequence that effectively gives visual form to the conflicting verbal versions of the incident.

With the exception of Nerida Tyson-Chew’s score and some era-typical wardrobe choices we are spared indulgence in 1990s ideas of cinematic styling thanks to Franklin’s judicious no-frills focussing on the drama at hand although the film's ending feels a little too pat given the fraught nature of what has gone before it (in this respect one my also question the jaunty opening titles which suggest some kind of 1930s take on women in the workplace).

DVD Extras: Audio commentary by Richard Franklin; 1996 interviews with Franklin; David Williamson and cast members; Shooting Brilliant Lies - a behind-the-scenes featurette; Theatrical trailer.

Available from: Umbrella Entertainment

 

Want something different?