Director: Matt Aselton
Cast: Theo James, Emily Ratajkowski, Fred Melamed
Rating:15
Running time: 95 mins
Release date: 11/11/2019
There is clearly an art to crime – and in the new LA-set noir drama LYING AND STEALING, the stakes are art for crime.
Ivan Warding (Theo James) is an expert in knowledge of Art – and in stealing it in the optimum places. This certainly is something that holds much appeal to his sleazy Art-loving boss Dimitri Maropakis (Fred Melamed), to whom Ivan is in arrears and honours his agreement by going to key properties and parties to remove slickly pricey and priceless examples.
His brother Ray (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is biopolar and a gambler who is living with him to get back on his feet.
Elyse Tibaldi (Emily Ratajkowski) is an actress blacklisted by her Hollywood producer boss who falls in with Ivan to help him secure one piece from Hitler’s own collection, before heading off into the sunset with his money and dignity intact. As is the case, there are a few complications on the way, not helped by an FBI agent who has been following Ivan’s exploits with interest….
Directed by Matt Atelson (from a script co-written with Adam Nagata) and pretty much rooted in the tradition of films like THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR, LYING AND STEALING is slick enough and captures the underbelly of high-end LA society with smart people and even smarter-looking houses, but it doesn’t quite hit the twists and turns that this type of drama should to provide a satisfactory conclusion.Â
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The influence of films like Roman Polanski’s CHINATOWN and John Dahl’s THE LAST SEDUCTION are prominent here as well and the landscape is very much in the darkness and shadows of the LA foothills. Ratajkowski doesn’t have as much to do as she should do and the relationship between Ivan and Elyse should be a little more competitive and high-stakes compared to what is revealed here.
A better and tighter script would have worked better and it’s a shame the elements and set-up aren’t exploited as effectively as in other more satisfying films.
Not bad, but could have been better.
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