Main Cast: Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson, Rupert Everett, Hermione Norris, John Warnaby
Release Year: 2005
Country: UK
Run Time: 87 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A damaged relationship is stretched to its desperate limits in this drama. Anne (Emily Watson) and James (Tom Wilkinson) are a seemingly happy and prosperous British couple who divide their time between a flat in London and a house in the country. However, their marriage is not as contented as one might imagine, and for years James has turned a blind eye to just how deeply unhappy Anne has become with him. Their lives together reach a crossroads when Anne meets the handsome and charming Bill Bule (Rupert Everett); Anne becomes deeply infatuated with him, which only reinforces her dissatisfaction with James, but when the two become involved in an accident that kills another man, Bill drops out of the picture and James decides he must step forward to protect the woman he wed. Separate Lies was the directorial debut from screenwriter Julian Fellowes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Julian Fellowes' Separate Lies dwells in the same adulterous British parlors as Woody Allen's Match Point, also released in late 2005. But it has something altogether different to say about how people behave when confronted with infidelity. Instead of focusing on the panicked maneuvering of the cheating spouse, as Allen does, Fellowes views events from the perspective of the cuckold (Tom Wilkinson), whose reactions are anything but typical. Sure, James Manning indulges in some wallowing, but far more characteristic is his dispassionate pragmatism and his sad attempts to compromise -- which remind the viewer that this pain manifests itself in many ways, not all of them noble or even righteously ignoble. Manning's stiff-lipped, buttoned-up ways are so ingrained, he cedes all power to his cavalierly cheating wife (Emily Watson), not only resisting opportunities to hang her out to dry, but even risking his own safety and absolving her of guilt. The fact that this is not the way most people would react makes Fellowes' script occasionally maddening, but more often fascinating, as it resists the easy answers and well-worn paths of other similar films. Wilkinson's performance makes possible the fine line between sympathizing with Manning and despising him. Fellowes' directorial debut is a bit of a structural oddity -- it reaches an early climax, after little more than an hour, and the epilogue that fills out the scant 87 minutes may frustrate even those ardently on board with his agenda. But the acclaimed screenwriter and former actor is clearly comfortable with actors, drawing out good work from Watson and a gaunt Rupert Everett, in perhaps his most humorless role yet. Watching the film, one wonders whether the sickly looking Everett is transforming his body for the needs of the role, or actually sick himself. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
John Warnaby - Simon; Linda Bassett - Maggie; John Neville - Lord Rawston; David Harewood - Inspector Marshall
Credit
Niall Moroney - Art Director, Janey Fothergill - Casting, Michelle Clapton - Costume Designer, David Brown - First Assistant Director, Julian Fellowes - Director, Martin Walsh - Editor, Alex Mackie - Editor, Paul Smith - Executive Producer, Stanislas Syrewicz - Composer (Music Score), Roseanne Samuel - Makeup, Alison Riva - Production Designer, Tony Pierce-Roberts - Cinematographer, Steve Clark-Hall - Producer, Christian Colson - Producer, Chris Munro - Sound/Sound Designer, Gary Connery - Stunts Coordinator, Dave Holland - Stunts Coordinator, Julian Fellowes - Screenwriter, Alan Church - Visual Effects Supervisor, Piotr Styczen - Special Effects Coordinator, Tom Sayers - Supervising Sound Editor, Mark Heslop - Supervising Sound Editor, Lee Sandales - Set Decorator, Nigel Balchin - Book Author
Separate Lies is a 2005Britishdrama film directed by Julian Fellowes who also wrote the screenplay, updating the 1951 novel A Way Through the Wood by Nigel Balchin that had already been turned into a stage play under the title Waiting for Gillian in 1957. The film stars Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson and Rupert Everett. Separate Lies marked the directorial debut of Julian Fellowes, who has worked mostly as an actor and won an Academy Award with his screenplay for Altman's Gosford Park.
"No life is perfect - even if it seems to be," says James Manning, a wealthy London solicitor. When it comes to matters of right and wrong, he likes to think of himself as inflexible. Anne, his much younger wife, is accommodating and dutiful and likes the life they lead, the house in London, the Buckinghamshire hideaway. The couple seems to have it all, yet events soon will prove them wrong.
In the village, a neighbor has reappeared: William Bule, son of a leading local family. He has recently returned from America, a bad marriage, and two children whose ages he cannot bother to remember. Bill is indolent and insinuating and at the village cricket match he catches Anne's eye. Because of him, she suggests to her reluctant husband that they should have neighbors over for drinks. However, that evening, James has to work late in the city. Before the party is set to begin, a speeding car sideswipes a man bicycling along a village lane. The man is hurled to the ground and dies a few days later. He was the husband of Maggie, the Mannings’ housekeeper.
Anne takes a special interest in Maggie's well-being, but James can't understand her sudden teary investment in their housekeeper’s personal life. James, whose priorities have become skewed toward work rather than toward his wife, soon becomes suspicious that Bill may be involved in that fatal hit-and-run. When confronted, Bill initially denies the allegation, but soon tells James that the next day he would go to the police and confess, if that is what he wants, although he sees no benefit from his confessions. Back home, when James tells Anne about his conversation with Bill, she has also some striking confessions to make. Anne reveals one hurtful secret while making a salad: she was actually driving Bill’s car when drunk and accidentally hit the cyclist. While artfully arranging ingredients on a platter, she informs her already distraught husband that she has also been having an affair with Bill. Telling her story, she asserts that Bill doesn't really mean anything to her, because he doesn't make demands or judge her, as James does in little, incessant ways. Precisely because he's a lout, Bill makes her feel oddly liberated, if not loved.
As a Buckinghamshire police inspector questions the Mannings and Bill about the accident, James is torn between doing the right thing and maintaining appearances at all costs. James really loves Anne, and the couple takes a trip to Wales in an effort to leave the accident, their guilt, and their marital troubles behind. However, Maggie, whose husband was killed, witnessed the accident. She saw the car and identifies it as belonging to Bill Bule. Yet her testimony may be biased, since Maggie knows William Bule well, having worked for his family until she was accused of stealing and dismissed. It was Anne who gave her a new start in the village.
"No life is perfect, though it may seem to be. Secrets and discontent lie hidden beneath the smoothest surface. In this, as in so many things, my life was no exception." - James Manning (Tom Wilkinson)
