Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Lie’ on Amazon Prime, a Blumhouse Thriller About Parents Making Terrible Decisions

The Lie might be the highest-profile movie of the four new Welcome to the Blumhouse features rolling out on Amazon Prime this month: It stars Peter Sarsgaard, Joey King and Mireille Enos, is written and directed by Veena Sud (The Salton Sea, showrunner of The Killing) and premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. An English-language remake of German film We Monsters, the movie leans more into thriller territory than traditional horror — although parents of teenagers may feel otherwise.

THE LIE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Kayla (King) transfers from her mom’s shiny Range Rover to her dad’s grubby Subaru. She’s got one foot in each vehicle since they divorced, and the wounds seem raw enough for each to wince slightly at the thought of the other moving on to another partner. Rebecca (Enos) is a crisp attorney and Jay (Sarsgaard) is a rumpled musician. Don’t worry, they’re about to get on the same page, and if it seems improbable that one person representing THE MAN and another representing LIKE, REBELLION, MAN would be on the same page, just you wait.

Jay’s schlepping Kayla to a weekend ballet camp when they lock up the brakes and pick up her friend Britney (Devery Jacobs), who happens to be by the side of the road and signed up for the same retreat. During the drive, he reluctantly pulls over so they can relieve themselves in the woods. A small eternity passes, so he clods through the snow to look for them. He hears Kayla scream, and soon finds her looking too much like she’s about to throw herself off a bridge into an icy river. “Where’s Britney?” he asks. “I pushed her,” she replies. Oh jeez.

Here is when this becomes Bad Decisions: The Movie: Jay stomps around in the water for a minute and can’t find Britney, then shoves his daughter in the car so they can totally flee the scene. Seems like somebody slept through Parenting 101, but it becomes clear that Rebecca flunked the grad-level course when Jay convinces her to help cover everything up because parenthood, and because if she faced the inevitably harsh consequences their lives would be complete and utter shit instead of just the total shit it’ll be if they harbor an awful secret, I guess? Next thing you know, the plot becomes a toilet-spiral of Britney’s dad ringing the doorbell and cops knocking and a question as to where the girl’s cell phone is and I FEEL LIKE I’M SITTING ON AN ATOMIC BOMB WAITING FOR IT TO GO OFF.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: This is like Michael Haneke’s A Simple Plan or Lars von Trier’s Do the Wrong Thing.

Performance Worth Watching: Enos quite convincingly sells this stuff, playing a tightly wound Urban Professional With a Expensive-Ass Condo who’s doing her best not to let her inner guilt and horror show on her face.

Memorable Dialogue: Rebecca isn’t quite on board with the accessory-to-murder plan when she questions Jay’s parenting: “You let her get away with everything!”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Once you get over the fact that these characters are INFURIATING, The Lie actually functions quite well as a finely directed, suspenseful thriller wrought with tense scenes. As the once-broken family holes up in Rebecca’s Expensive-Ass Condo (but not so expensive that it has one of those Really Long Fireplaces), one assumes this isn’t quite how young Kayla envisioned her mom and dad getting back together but hey, it’s better than nothing. They both agree this scenario only needs one ruined life, not two, because that’s perfectly logical and not at all an ethical slippery slope — although they’re obviously not counting their own lives. But once you’ve had children, do you ever truly have your own life? How far would you go to protect your child? When does a child become an adult? I dunno, I dunno, I dunno.

The movie’s contrivances fall in line with the unthinkable what-would-YOU-do situation plucked raw and wriggling from every parent’s nightmares; they sure seem less contrived within the context of every worst-case-scenario we procreators are so good at envisioning. More disturbing still is the psychological state of Kayla, who seems to be better than her parents at the art of compartmentalization. “She’s just in shock,” they say as they lie lie lie lie lie like Trump’s press secretary and slink around in the dark burying things. I don’t know if Sud has anything too profound to say about parenting — it’s more of a what-if thought experiment than an authentic exploration of character — but when the teakettle boils, the microwave beeps, the atomic bomb goes off, you won’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Lie is a ridiculous movie, but it delivers on its promise to saw away at your nerves.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream The Lie on Amazon Prime