There is always something odd about Mr. Egoyan's films. With his movies I am never convinced I'm watching real people in real situations. Often I find the dialog and acting to be quite stilted as if each film is some sort of inside joke. If it is a joke I don't get it. WHERE THE TRUTH LIES is probably the best example of this from the three Egoyan films I've seen...including EXOTICA and THE SWEET HEREAFTER. It seems as though the actors are about to break into laughter the second the camera stops. Maybe Mr Egoyan is a funny guy and he makes funny faces at his actors while the camera is rolling during what should seem like serious scenes. I also felt this way during what I thought would be a heart-breaking drama THE SWEET HEREAFTER, which I saw at The Boston Film Festival the director was attending. After the screening Egoyan was taking questions from the audience and I was just dying to ask him if he intended to make a comedy about grief....but in case that wasn't his intention I didn't want to offend him. What is the deal with his artificial take on the world? I understand WHERE THE TRUTH LIES is a homage to one of his favorite genres, but where is the subtlety? Where is the mystery? The over powering music score was telling me I was at least listening to a mystery and Ms. Lohman's question mark line delivery was trying to tell me I was watching a mystery, but then why did I find this movie funnier than THE FAMILY STONE? It beats me. I won't go on with EXOTICA though I recall feeling really disappointed with that as well. So I suggest you save your money on this one. I don't think it would even make a good rental, unless the comedy section has been emptied out. I think the answer is that Egoyan is an empty filmmaker who yearns to be provocative. This is my vow in print that I will never see another one of his films again. Luckily for me, at my showing of WHERE THE TRUTH LIES the projector died during the final 15 minutes and the film never came back on. I never found out the mystery of who killed the girl and I didn't care. At least I had a good laugh and I got my money back.
Review of Where the Truth Lies
