The Lie

Nobody can play the role better than Joey King. She passes perfectly for a delusional, eerie, self-obsessed teenager. I'm not sure if the plot twist is entirely believable, but at least it was unique. And the movie had great acting, though slightly slow the plot kept building up. The reviews are on the opposite ends of a spectrum, and that's understandable, as a whole, the movie is slightly a mess and can appeal to a limited crowd. Whether you fit into that, is your call.

I have so many questions, but listing them would be divulging into spoilers, so I'm going to let them go unanswered.

I hope the title of the review helps others like me, who go into this expecting a Blumhouse movie released in conjunction with Prime a few weeks before Halloween, to be a scary movie. Now that's put this aside

The cast do their best with this ridiculous plot, that would borderline work as a poor 25 minute episode of Inside Number 9

The writing is pretty dreadful, the direction bland and lacking much in the way of thrills The movie is glacier paced, without the script or character development to hold it up Someone needs to go back to film school - It's so bad the you will see the ending coming within minutes of the incident itself There's no attempt to even throw the viewer in the other direction

I would recommend watching the first 10 mins, then mins 58 to 60, and the last 5 minute and save yourself a precious evening you could be spending on something much more worthwhile

Only real reason I'm writing this is to counter everyone else's absurdly angry reviews. This was a decent story, well acted, and no I didn't know where it was going. I went along with the ride. People are mad at the plot because the parents did stupid things... well, people do stupid things. Isn't that the point? Also, if a movie inspired a reaction from you... isn't that also the point?

I've got three teenagers, and by experience, you don't need a movie to remind you that they can be obnoxiously rebellious and unpredictable. "The Lie" takes that to an extreme where the parents make very stupid decisions to cover up their daughter's misdeeds.

The majority of the movie is protecting that lie to harrowing results. The finale is a face-palm moment where you think, as a potential parent, that "I would've done that so different!" Or maybe not?

Viewers must be able to differentiate between good acting and how the movie made them feel! Most parents know exactly that teenage behaviours can be obnoxious and intolerable and watching this movie reminded them of that! That does not mean that the story is not good. In fact the movie poses the very important "what would you do " question.. I am certain that the answers are easier said than done!