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I was fortunate enough to get tickets to the North American premier of Atom
Egoyan’s brilliant new thriller, Where the Truth Lies, at the Toronto Film Festival.
The film has been getting a lot of buzz due to the controversial NC17 rating
it received in the U.S. (demonstrating that, in the movies, it’s still cool to kill people, as long as you don’t show their privies). It stars Kevin Bacon and Collin Firth as Lanny Morris and Vince Collins, comedic entertainers in the
late 1950s who harbour a deep secret involving an evening of sexually-charged, menage-a-trois antics resulting in the death of a woman (Rachel Blanchard) in their hotel room. They’re never charged with the crime, but Morris and Collins part ways immediately after the incident.
The film shifts back and forth between the ‘50s and the ‘70s, the latter being when the majority of the story takes place. Fifteen years following the incident, an obsessive fan and would-be author, Karen O’Connor (Alison Lohman), tries desperately to uncover the mystery of the parting of her childhood heroes. As she gets deeper into the mystery, she begins to see that whatever it is that the comedy stars are hiding is neither funny nor easy to unravel.
I absolutely loved this film. The musical score, the plot, and the phenomenal acting are beyond expectation. Kevin Bacon is once again to be praised for his amazing talent and his courage in taking on yet another difficult role. Collin Firth is charming but also daring and a bit devious, which is a different face for him—one that he wears with astounding comfort. Alison Lohman does well as the foil, and Rachel Blanchard is to be credited as well for her courage in playing a sexually-driven role that many Hollywood actresses would not have dared to play.
