Liar, Liar

(Jorge Montesi, Canada, 1992)

Liar, Liar is a surprisingly intelligent Canadian telemovie on the topic of child abuse within families.

Director Jorge Montesi previously directed Omen IV:The Awakening (1991) with Dominique Othenin-Girard and for quite a while Liar, Liar exhibits a rather misplaced desire to dramatise its sensitive issues in a scary, sensationalised manner.

Worse still, it initially presents the legal battle over a young girl's alleged abuse in the most reactionary form imaginable: as a war between justice, common sense and male rationality on the one hand, and shrilly vindictive, politically correct feminism on the other.

This all turns out, fortunately, to be a very canny red herring – a way of luring in viewers with entrenched, conservative beliefs and then persuading them otherwise. As a film for discussion that does not merely preach to the already enlightened, Liar, Liar is highly recommended.

MORE Montesi: Hush Little Baby

© Adrian Martin May 1993