Where the Truth Lies

Atom Egoyan wrote and directed The Sweet Hereafter, a film that was critically acclaimed but which I didn’t like that much. In this one he seems to be trying for a David Lynch Mulholland Drive sort of atmosphere, a ‘40s film noir sensibility, with maybe a bit of Chinatown thrown in. The background music is moody and intrusive and the story is fairly distasteful and not easy to believe. I thought Alison Lohman was miscast as the plucky young author trying to root out the sins of the past. It was just hard to take her seriously. There were good things about the movie, particularly the evocation of the 1950s era, but not enough to make it worthwhile.