Cheap White Lie (Video) (Bill Condon) Price

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Customer Reviews of White Lie

It's murder in the South
Based on the novel by Samuel Charters "Louisiana Black", the screenplay for this film reaches it's peak about 2/3rd's of the way through, then sputters out. In a sense the tranquil understatement and lack of hysteria that director Bill Condon has applied to the material only highlights the phoniness of the conclusion. Perhaps Condon takes his cue from Gregory Hines' performance as a New York Mayoral press secretary who discovers that his parents have lied to him, and that his birth-father was lynched in the Southern town he has been taken away from, accused of the rape of a white woman. Hines isn't a bad actor but he doesn't have the tension that a trained actor possesses, and if anything his dance background works against the inner turmoil that one would expect such a family revelation to impose. His presence is so non threatening, even to the racist remnants of the place of his birth, that when he is forced to defend himself against attack from some good ole boys, he is easily defeated, and it just makes the aggressors seem even more bigoted. The rational for the original lynching provides a parallel and perhaps even predetermines Hines' romance with Annette O'Toole, as the daughter of the husband of the allegedly raped woman. Although romantics may think it's love at first sight, O'Toole's overwhelming interest is a little unbelievable, particularly when Hines is meant to be a disruptive presence. It's no surprise that Gregg Henry as her brother outacts Hines, but O'Toole's delicacy is. The appointment of Bill Nunn as the town sheriff is meant to represent the advances made since the days of the lynching, but Gunn's stance against Hines' investigation is hard to interpret. I actually wished that the narrative would refocus on Gunn's past to gain some more of an understanding of the ambiguities in his choices. While Condon's decision to begin the film with the lynching seems initially off-putting, the silence of the mob at the moment the man dies and the mournful music that plays over the faces of the photograph that is taken, assures us that he knows what he's doing. I could have done without Hines seeing a mob of reporters at a press conference as the mob around the lynching, but I enjoyed the laugh he gets from the cry of a parrot as it's cage is covered for the night.