Author's judgement:
It all starts with a blind date, in a bar, where two elderly widowers try to find a soul mate and rebuild a life through a web search, as is now the case in many parts of the world in different age groups. The first few times the protagonists tell a few small, innocent lies, perhaps so as not to reveal everything immediately, so as not to expose themselves to the risk of unpleasant encounters and be able to go back immediately.
With the passage of time and the encounters that follow, the truths and one's true identities begin to emerge and behind an apparent tranquility a world and a dramatic story are revealed, with an unpredictable outcome. It is a film that has only been in theaters for a few days, The perfect deception, directed by Bill Condon and two masterful performers: Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen, actors made with a mold that has perhaps been lost.
The story tells the story of a professional swindler who behind the apparent appearance of a quiet businessman hides an unexpected and unsuspecting criminal and violent nature, just as a professional swindler should be, and of a victim, perhaps only apparently so. It is a thriller and we can't tell you much more so as not to take away the pleasure of finding out how it will end, in a hard, bitter and surprisingly political way because it will take the whole story back to 60 years earlier, during the Second World War in Germany, where the protagonists come from.
The film it holds everything on the theme of lies, deception, subterfuge, where almost everything is not as it seems or as we are told. The narrative structure is solid and credible, it holds everything up well in terms of times and methods. It is a theatrical screenplay in many respects (although in many sequences one senses the wisdom of those who know how to make great cinema with remarkable attention to images). As we wrote, the two protagonists are of a very high level and perfectly support the role.
In the history of cinema, lies, lies, deceit and scams are a recurring theme, a trend that has given great titles. We mention only a few, in our opinion, among the best: TotòTruffa, The Sting, The Mastermind of the Scam. In this case, however, we are in the presence of a historical "deception" of particular relevance and drama which, it is probable, was committed by thousands of people after the end of the war, when many were more or less guilty of being forced to reinvent themselves new life because perhaps the previous one was somehow irreparably compromised.
The perfect deception is a pretext, a narrative cue, where the story takes place in a dimension that is only apparently fraudulent and initially resembles that film by Nanni Loy, Pacco, contro packet, contropaccotto where behind a deception, a scam, a new one is immediately hidden and different. At a certain point there is a substantial change and an escalation starts that points straight to tragedy.
Just to attend an acting rehearsal of the two protagonists, well worth the ticket money. If we then add a theme that has always concerned people's lives, the perfect result is achieved: cinema tells the story of humanity through images and, in this case, it succeeds very well. Deserves all four stars.
