MovieChat Forums > The Good Liar (2019) Discussion > Really liked the movie, but had two majo...

Really liked the movie, but had two major problems


1. Both main character's were born on lived in Germany. Now Helen Mirren's character I could understand since she did not live her whole life in Germany, but Ian McKellen's character lived there untill he was in his twenties. And some how he does not have any trace accent despite German being his first and native language?

2. Ian McKellen's character when he was a teen seems to become evil out of nowhere. Why was he getting physical with the teenage sisters, they seemed to be nice to him? I know he was angry at the teenage sisters after they rejected him, but why did he rape Mirren's character? Really made no sense.

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Rapist, murderer, embezzler--he is a psychopath.

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Also, it is beyond belief that Ian McKellen's character would not recognize the older Mirren character, especially considering that they had a tutor/student relationship. She being able to recognize him as an older man but him being oblivious to the fact that he had raped her when they were young is too far fetched to accept because it is such an integral plot point.

This failure is the biggest problem I see with this film.

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I know people, now in their sixties, who look and sound nothing like they did as teenagers. If I had gone decades without any contact with them, there is no way I would recognize them if I encountered them again.

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He treated her as an object, not interested to find resemblance, may have thought she died in the bombing of the rest of her family.

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It had been a very long time.

A bigger problem is that the story is apparently supposed to be set in 2020 or so. Which would mean they are born around 1930 and so now 90 years old. Hard to buy. They should have set the story as 15 years ago, but they didn't take any steps to set it in about 2005.

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In the beginning it says "London, 2009"

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There's lots more wrong with the movie than that. Not the worst movie but not very good. 4/10
At least the acting is good.

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I enjoyed the movie but totally agree with your points. the 2. Absolutely. You cant understand and that is a weakness of the script. the whole revenge-thing was a bit constructed but never the less the movie was neat. Good actors, nice locations, good camera work, good soundtrack. 6/10

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Yeah I liked it but it gets weird halfway through.

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