Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

bobvend A very admirable, well-made film, Separate Lies tells a complex tale of fate, lies, infidelities and the precarious truces people make with each other in order to move on.One of the prominent themes in this very human film is that, sometimes, not speaking at all is akin to telling a lie. But in speaking up and accepting responsibility for ones actions, do we inflict further and needless damage and pain?The acting and directing are first-rate, and the cinematography is compelling without being overbearing. The fact that much of the story is set and filmed in the British countryside certainly doesn't hurt either. A competent adult drama filled with interesting characters that the viewer actually does grow to care about, Separate Lies is deserving of much praise.

Kirpianuscus a delicate theme. and wise manner to explore it. delicate nuances. realistic levels of crisis. bitter slices of honesty. a fight. and the justice. a film who preserves the shadows of middle age. the dialog, the feelings, the need to be yourself, the other as wall and window. the marriage as cage because the pieces of another life style is answer of a long expectation. a film who could represent a splendid surprise. the acting, the script, the delicate science to explore the details. and the beauty of London who becomes more than stage/location of a drama who seems be more and more large and profound. a film about the options of an age. its results. its force. and the fragility of few people in search of happiness. short , a film about the roots of love.

herbqedi This is a very British movie. To the gentry, the inconvenient hit-and- run death of a commoner is too messy to allow it to tarnish their lives even if that commoner happens to be the spouse of their servant (wonderfully played by Linda Bassett). In point of fact, all the acting is excellent and takes us in-depth into the shallowness and fecklessness of its three leads. Emily Watson is one of my favorite actresses and her eyes and smile send my heart a- flutter. She is fascinating plumbing the depths of the soul of well- meaning wife who kills her beloved servant's husband without taking legal responsibility and cuckolds and deserts her husband. She earnestly regrets all but does nothing about it - even to the point of forcing the cuckolded husband to lie in support of her lover's lie. Rupert Everett is so perfectly cast as the feckless and ne'er-do-well- but-charming son of A Lord (wonderfully played by John Neville)that it almost seems as though the part were written for him. Tom Wilkenson plays the influential barrister who allows himself to be disrespected and depressed but never quite disgraced enough by the private humiliation to show his embarrassment in public. To say that this is a balancing act for an actor of titanic proportions is an understatement. But, after all, this is Tom Wilkinson, one of the greatest living actors on the planet and he pulls it off with grace and aplomb. So, why just 4/10 for this drawing room drama? it buckles under the weight of its own clichés and the script fails to compensate with any type of droll wit, just bitter irony -and not enough of that. For a glimpse of how this should be done, see the marvelous 1950 adaptation of J. B. Priestly's An Inspector Calls starring Alistair Sim or the film adaptation Terrence Rattigan's Separate Tables. Both interject their characters with enough self-effacing and ironic droll wit that the tawdry situations seem fresh and new. Here they are simply tawdry clichés. This is especially true of Wilkinson's obligatory affair with office-mate Hermoine Norris who welcomes the boss into her bed and still supports him after he unceremoniously dumps her. The obligatory rants against the gentry's disregard for the working class by the Police Detective (the always-excellent David Harewood) to the servant just adds to the viewer's shrugs of "Again?" I'd pay good money on the West End to see Wilkinson, Watson, Everett, Harewood, and Bassett read the phone book. The trouble is that I think they would be able to improvise more interest, originality, and droll lines from the phone book than from this script. Ultimately, I found this a disappointing deployment of a half dozen amazing performances.In summary, if you wish to see Separate Lies as a canvas for excellent British acting to study and hone your own techniques, it is well worth renting. If you watch this as entertainment, you will find yourself looking at your watch and ultimately be disappointed.

suchenwi I agree with other commenters that the acting was intense (life-like? depends on whose life it's supposed to be), but what irritated me most was the contempt of law.A cyclist is killed in a car accident. This certainly is a crime, but the police (embodied by a single black, and obviously contempted, officer) try to solve the case in vain. The titular Lies prevent that. And the second funeral, of the adultering "milord", seems to be of more interest than the first, the accident victim.I like cynical movies where sympathetic perpetrators win in the end, but here? I'd have preferred better police work (even with Miss Marple or such) that would have solved the case.