The riveting thriller Lies (1983) is an underrated work by the famous duo of screenwriter and director brothers Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat. The crime thriller features the entrapment of a young woman and her struggle to break free from her captors.
Ann Dusenberry plays Robyn, a struggling actress whose refusal to compromise her morals makes it hard to secure acting leads in Hollywood. When she is approached by Jessica Brenner (Gail Strickland) to play the lead in a biopic of a mentally ill young woman with a traumatic past, Robyn takes it as her breakthrough role. But as she participates in rehearsals, she realizes that she has been told lies about the role – and before she can walk away, she is made the central figure in a major crime scheme, leading her to be locked up in an insane asylum.
Bruce Davison as the supposed brother of the mentally ill woman delivers a convincing performance as one of the antagonists while Terence Knox as Robyn’s cheating boyfriend shows the needed transformation to return and help Robyn against the criminals.
Lies has a solid plot and the suspense builds up pretty quickly with a number of exciting turns and twists surprising the viewer. People turn out not who they appear to be; things that were presented as facts at first are revealed to be lies and machinations; and the battle for the protagonist’s survival continues till the last moment. It’s a recommended thriller for lovers of crime-thriller stories.
