(15, 85mins): Starring Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson, Rupert Everett, Hermione Norris. Directed by Julian Fellowes.
As Julian Fellowes demonstrated in his Oscar-winning screenplay for Gosford Park, he has a rare gift for stitching together multi-layered narratives and a sharp eye for the foibles and eccentricities of the privileged classes.
For his directorial debut, Fellowes chooses to adapt Nigel Balchins novel A Way Through The Wood, a provocative study of corrupted ideals and infidelity originally penned in 1951.
Updated to the present day and refashioned as a crime drama, Separate Lies poses a series of moral dilemmas which never truly grip us, though the film's central tenet - that we are deeply-flawed, self-serving creatures - strikes a universal chord.
Anne Manning (Watson) and her businessman husband James (Wilkinson) seem to have the perfect marriage. He commutes every day to his high-powered, well-paid job as an international lawyer while she looks after their sprawling country mansion, aided by cleaning lady Maggie (Bassett).
But when Maggie's husband is killed in a hit-and-run accident, James suspects newcomer Bill Bule (Everett) may have been the driver.
Wilkinson powerfully conveys his character's frustration and desperation, contrasting with Watson's low-key portrayal of a trophy wife willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.
With a cheerier tone and a comedy sergeant to accompany Inspector Marshall, Separate Lies has all the makings of a solid episode of Midsomer Murders - right down to the plot contrivances.
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