Dangerous Lies: Riverdale’s truly terrible Netflix thriller Camila Mendes

Dangerous Lies (13+, 97 minutes) Directed by Michael M. Scott ★★ Reviewed by James Croot

There was a time when fatal women ruled the Hollywood chicken coop.

In the early 1990s, movies like Single white woman, Basic instinct, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Poison Ivy and Sliver, the tales of misbehaving women drew crowds of multiplexes to the public.

Perhaps a reaction to more than a decade of traditional stalker / murderer movies, or as a result of the success of Fatal AttractionMovie buffs seem to feast on these roommates, babysitters, au pairs, psychologists, and, um, book publishers, using their positions for dire and sometimes deadly ends. It was a sub-genre that went extinct almost as fast as it seemed, thanks to too many direct clunkers to D-grade video and the rise of more serious serial killer movies like Seven and Kiss the girls and parodies like Shout.

With her melancholic main poster image, provocative title and the casting of the actress she plays RiverdaleIntriguing socialist Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) had high hopes Dangerous lies it could offer a return to those heady nights around 1992. Sadly, it didn’t. This thriller, written by Christmas TV movie specialist David Golden, is an unpredictable quest through old tropes, a mystery Scooby Doo would be ashamed of, and a fatal lack of characters.

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It all starts promising enough. Mendes is Chicago Smile Diner waitress Katie Franklin. She has put her own tertiary education ambitions on hold to help her husband Adam Kettner (Jessie T. Usher) complete her temporary studies in sociological theory. But one night, as the couple rides in their car during one of their shifts, the place is stolen.

Adam eventually saves the day with a skillet, but we quickly learn that the couple has some pretty acute financial problems. Cut to four months later and the money is still too tight to mention. Adam refuses to take a minimum-wage job, forcing Katie to work as a caregiver for Leonard Wellesley (Elliott Gould), 88.

An only son who never married, Leonard is in love with Katie’s kindness and desperate to make a difference for her and her “young man.” That means offering Adam a job as a gardener and stealthily adding an extra 0 to his paycheck.

So when Leonard ends up dead the next morning, the authorities, and we, wonder if it might not be from natural causes, a suspicion not helped by the discovery of a cash-filled trunk in the attic and a hastily written will, leaving Leonard’s highly sought-after home for Katie.

Dangerous lies It is a frustrating movie, full of ridicule, false clues, and never-explained subplots. As for the big turn? Even those who use this as a second screen wallpaper will not stop solving it, as the movie had already worked with almost any other permutation. Meanwhile, Mendes’ character spends much of his time avoiding the accusations which ends up being remarkably bland and one-dimensional.

Director Michael M. Scott tries to create some atmosphere through slider cameras and a grim production design, but the helm of small screens like Secret millionaire, Along came a babysitter and Christmas on Holly Lane You can’t rise as high above the meat of television, typically tired and terrible.

Dangerous lies is now streaming on Netflix.