(spoiler free)
Camila Mendes, star of teen TV series Riverdale has top billing as the lead actor in new Netflix thriller Dangerous Lies. She stars as Katie, a young caregiver assigned to look after an elderly man. However, with suspicious activity becoming more and more prevalent in and around this man’s house, Katie is quickly drawn into a mysterious criminal investigation leading her to question those she previously trusted the most.
No doubt hoping to draw in the Riverdale audience with the casting of Mendes, the film begins baring a striking resemblance to the aesthetic of that popular TV show. It’s bathed in neon hues for the opening scenes which at least gives the film some vibrancy, however this artistic choice is almost instantly forgotten. As the film progresses the colour palette quickly aligns itself with the dull nature of the narrative, in which there’s really nothing thrilling taking place at all. Unfortunately the central mystery here is never intriguing enough to allow viewers to become at all engaged with the story. This means that the attempts at any subsequent thrills all fall flat, failing to achieve their desired reaction.
The cast are better than you might expect in a film like this, although no cast could have elevated the weak screenplay they had to work with. The supporting cast get very little to do here, and it’s a shame as the more prominent members fail to really captivate viewers with their performances, despite not being terrible. Their performances, with the screenplay much to blame, just feel boring and that can be a bigger cinematic sin than being bad. Ultimately the lacklustre story gives them very little opportunity to have fun with their roles and if they’re not having fun it’s highly unlikely that the audience will be.
Meandering its way to its anti-climatic finale this thriller delivers nothing to earn the right to be categorised in this genre. Ultimately, Dangerous Lies is nowhere near the quality of any even any decent thrillers that have come before it, yet similarly it isn’t over the top enough to become “so bad it’s good”. Falling into neither category this Netflix thriller is doomed to be nothing more than a bland and unmemorable entry into the streaming platform’s ever expanding collection.
Written by Hamish Calvert
★
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