Dangerous Lies (2020)

Streaming Service: Netflix

Movie Name/Year: Dangerous Lies (2020)

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Length: 96 minutes

Rating: TV-14

Production/Distribution: Off Camera Productions, Netflix

Director: Michael M. Scott

Writer: David Golden

Actors: Nick Purcha, Joe Costa, Camila Mendes, Briana Skye, Jessie T. Usher, Sean Owen Roberts, Trevor Lerner, Elliott Gould, Cam Gigandet, Sasha Alexander, Emma Pedersen, Jamie Chung, Stefania Indelicato, Garfield Wilson, France Perras, Erika McKitrick

Blurb from IMDb: When a wealthy elderly man dies and unexpectedly leaves his estate to his new caregiver, she's drawn into a web of deception and murder. If she's going to survive, she'll have to question everyone's motives - even the people she loves.

Selina’s Point of View:

Netflix has been serving up some gold with their originals lately. I don’t think Dangerous Lies should be considered among them, though.

The movie started off strong. There was this one scene that made me think the whole thing was going to be much different than what the blurb indicated. After that, the movie just morphed into a very typical story.

Every scene seemed boring because there was nothing to elevate it. A lot of the time, the script felt so forced, that it made the scene seem almost surreal in how bad it was.

Don’t even get me started on the score. It was so overdone that it got annoying it parts. All music in movies tend to be about getting the audience to feels something, but in this case it was trying to force something that the scenes weren’t working toward.

It was mostly a mess, except the ending.

I actually really enjoyed the last 10, maybe 15, minutes of the film. It caught me off-guard with some of the twists… and it wasn’t saccharin sweet, which I almost always appreciate. Considering how basic the rest of the movie was, they easily could have gone the typical route for the ending and called it a day.

I doubt I’d recommend Dangerous Lies to anyone, despite how I feel about the ending.

Cat’s Point of View:

Every once in a while, a movie will come up for review that I haven’t heard anything (or much) about. I get almost as excited for those as I do films that I am familiar with – because it’s a surprise. I never know what I’m going to get until I dive in. It’s like blindly unboxing a package full of random merchandise. Sometimes it’s amazing loot, and other times you end up scratching your head.

This time? I wasn’t disappointed. My over-all impression of Dangerous Lies is a positive one.

Let’s start with the cast. There are some interesting, flawed, and strong female characters here. Camila Mendes (The New Romantic, The Perfect Date, Palm Springs), Sasha Alexander (NCIS, Rizzoli & Isles, The Ride), and Jamie Chung (Once Upon a Time, 1985, The Gifted) were solid in their roles as a main character with backbone, a detective, and counsel – respectively.

The trifecta of primary male characters wasn’t bad, either. Elliott Gould (Removal, Contagion, Ocean's Eight) was perfect as the nice old gentleman you’d want to be your grandpa or great uncle. Jessie T. Usher (Independence Day: Resurgence, Shaft, The Boys) had me both wanting to root for him and wanting to wring his neck – mostly the latter. Cam Gigandet (4 Minute Mile, Black Site Delta, Assimilate) had me all squirmy. He’s perfected the sinister smile.

The first few minutes of the opening scene didn’t feel seamless. 

At one point I had to rewind back a few seconds to make sure I heard the characters right because it had provided information that had me thinking there’d been a sudden time jump of considerably more than a few minutes. Aside from that, the story took off rather smoothly. Once it picked up steam, it was fairly relentless in throwing one curveball after another.

I didn’t even see the twist coming – well, one of them at least.

The only other thing that bugged me a bit about the film was the ending. The final scene was generally fine – but the precise way it ended just didn’t seem right. Maybe that’s just me. I would recommend you give the film a chance and see for yourself if you feel it was fitting or not.  

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score –41%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 29%

Metascore – 49/100

Metacritic User Score – 4.4/10

IMDB Score – 5.2/10

CinemaScore – None

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2/5

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5

Movie Trailer: