The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Barry Hertz
From its lazy title down to its yes-we-all-saw-that-coming third-act twist, Dangerous Lies offers a particularly boring kind of last-resort viewing.
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
· 2020
1h 36m
Director Michael Scott
Starring Camila Mendes, Jessie T. Usher, Jamie Chung, Cam Gigandet
Genre Thriller
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Katie and Franklin, a young couple living in Chicago, struggle financially. To make ends meet, Katie takes a job as a caretaker for an old man in the suburbs. When he suddenly dies and leaves Katie and Franklin his home and money, the two must navigate a series of mysteries, lies, and twists.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Barry Hertz
From its lazy title down to its yes-we-all-saw-that-coming third-act twist, Dangerous Lies offers a particularly boring kind of last-resort viewing.
It’s pacy enough to secure at least our divided attention, competently trotting along in the background revealing surprises that aren’t really that surprising, like a pulpy, well-worn airplane novel that you guiltily devour in a day.
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
But if you can check your brain and go along with the preposterous plotting of a mystery thriller as generic as its title, there's a certain baseline pleasure in watching the more or less wholesome young couple at its center swim in a murky cesspool of deception and death. Oh, and diamonds!
Director Michael Scott, working in a moody color palette that often makes the movie look like an extended episode of Riverdale, keeps the surprises coming at a pace that ensures no one will think too hard about the fact that there aren’t really any clues to follow. The pleasure of Dangerous Lies isn’t finding out whodunit, but simply yelling, “What?” at your screen as increasingly unbelievable twists play out.
It might be kind of tedious, kind of sloppy, and mostly silly, but you could never accuse Dangerous Lies of false advertising. The new Netflix thriller, directed by Michael M. Scott, is practically designed for rainy day viewers who initially laugh at the title, and that’s not a bad thing.
Chicago Sun-Times by Richard Roeper
Working from a clever if occasionally convoluted screenplay by David Golden, director Michael M. Scott has fashioned a classic cautionary tale about two seemingly good and smart people who make some dumb decisions when greed and opportunity come knocking.
The end result is a thriller that doesn’t race towards a climax we figure out (finally) 20 minutes in advance, it limps there.
How you gonna make it right?