Film

The Good Liar

Name: The Good Liar
Genre: Crime
Released: 2019
Cast: Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Russell Tovey, Jim Carter, Mark Lewis Jones

A cat-and-mouse con artist thriller pairing Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen as two people who may or may not be what they seem. Elegant, twisty, surprisingly touching—it's a game of wits wrapped in the texture of a late-life romance. For anyone who loves a well-engineered plot and the pleasure of being outmaneuvered.

TMDb rating

3.3

If you liked this

American Hustle2013

Con artists and FBI agents play an elaborate game of deception across 1970s New Jersey, bursting with style and charisma. The pleasure is watching smart people think three steps ahead, with genuine emotional stakes underneath the swagger.

But It's denser and noisier than The Good Liar, with a larger cast to track. The tone whiplashes between comedy and drama.

Matchstick Men2003

Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell are con men whose latest scheme unravels in ways neither anticipated. Character-driven con film that treats the con as a means to explore loneliness and human connection.

But It predates modern cinematography and has an indie feel that some find dated. The twist requires you to be paying attention.

Now You See Me2013

Magicians use misdirection to pull off impossible heists while an FBI agent closes in. High-concept con thriller that prizes visual invention and the idea of audiences being complicit in the deception.

But The plotting gets tangled and the characters are often secondary to the spectacle. Some find it smarter than it actually is.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Good Liar

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Thelma & Louise1991

Both films center on an older protagonist (female in Thelma, male in Roy) who finally stops playing by the rules. But where The Good Liar is a game, Thelma is a reckoning—this wildcard shows what happens when the mask doesn't come off.

A widow discovers a loaded gun in her home and uses it to commit fraud and theft. A thriller that inverts the gentle grandmother archetype entirely, letting an older woman become dangerous and alive. Eerily prescient after The Good Liar.

But It's a European art film—slow, austere, and shot in long takes. There's no music, almost no dialogue. Demands active watching.

Rififi1955

A legendary jewel heist film with a famous silent sequence that builds tension without dialogue. Pure cinema, focused on craft and precision—the intellectual satisfaction of watching a plan executed flawlessly.

But It's in French, filmed in 1955, and offers no emotional warmth. The heist consumes all dramatic oxygen.

Ocean's Eleven1960

Ratpack charm and classic Hollywood style wrapped around a casino heist. A foundational con film that prizes wit and camaraderie, with a lightness that makes the genre feel effortless.

But The original is slower and less mechanically tight than you might expect. It's about hanging out more than plot mechanics.

Catch Me If You Can2002

Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio circle each other across decades as a con man and the FBI agent hunting him. Spielberg's trickster energy applied to a true story about the seduction of a convincing lie.

But It's sentimental in places and the historical jumps can feel scattered. DiCaprio's character lacks real darkness.

White of the Eye1987

A psychological thriller where a man suspected of murder gaslights his wife and her circle of friends. The con is interpersonal and intimate, twisting reality itself.

But It's deeply unsettling and misanthropic. Slow-burn stuff that doesn't resolve neatly. Difficult watch.

The Talented Mr. Ripley1999

A poor boy cons his way into the lives of the wealthy, and the con becomes increasingly violent and baroque. Morally rotten and beautifully composed—the confidence game turned into art.

But Ripley is so charming and the film so seductive that it can feel like you're being conned too. That's the point, but not everyone enjoys it.

Moonlight2016

Like The Good Liar, it's about how we present ourselves to the world and the gap between the face we show and who we actually are. But instead of a thriller's deception, Moonlight treats it as tragedy—the slow work of becoming yourself when the world won't let you.

A poetic meditation on identity across three stages of life, watching a man construct and reconstruct himself. Told in fragments, shot in jewel tones, utterly unhurried. One of cinema's most humane films about the masks we wear.

But There's almost no plot. It's entirely atmosphere and implication. If you're watching for events, you'll be frustrated. Some find it glacial.

Killing Zoe1993

Where The Good Liar plays con games as intellectual chess, Killing Zoe asks: what if the con is your reality? What if you can't stop performing? Both end with the question of what's left when the mask falls away.

An American safecracker arrives in Paris for one last score, caught between criminals and undercover cops, reality and delusion. Neon-drenched, elliptical, operating on dream logic rather than plot. A B-movie that thinks it's an essay on identity.

But It's 90s-specific and deliberately obtuse. The narrative circles rather than advances. Some scenes are gratuitously violent. Very few people love it.