Credits
Distributed by
Warner Bros. Pictures

Production companies
New Line Cinema
Bron Creative
1000 Eyes

Directed by
Bill Condon

Screenplay by
Jeffrey Hatcher

Based on
The Good Liar
by Nicholas Searle

Produced by
Bill Condon
Greg Yolen

Starring
Helen Mirren
Ian McKellen
Russell Tovey
Jim Carter

Cinematography
Tobias A. Schliessler

Edited by
Virginia Katz

Music by
Carter Burwell


Synopsis

In 2009 London Roy Courtnay is an aging British con artist who, along with his business partner Vincent, uses false identities to deceive people into giving him access to their finances. His latest target is Betty McLeish, a former history professor at Oxford University who lost her husband a year ago and has savings in excess of £2 million. Feigning a bad knee, Roy manipulates Betty into allowing him to stay at her house. He steadily encourages her to open a joint offshore investment account with him, so that he can steal her money. Simultaneously, Roy and Vincent run an investment scam with their mark Bryn and his associate by employing fake Russian investors. One of the fake Russians, actually a Polish butcher, demands a greater cut of the take; in response, Roy orders thugs to break the butcher's hand with a meat tenderizer. Realizing he has been robbed, Bryn follows Roy during his date with Betty. Upon spotting Bryn nearby, Roy sends Betty into the shops before luring Bryn into Charing Cross tube station. There, Roy stabs Bryn and then shoves him into the path of an incoming train, killing him. Roy reunites with Betty back at the shops. Betty takes all of Roy's money out of their joint account, leaving him only enough money to pay back the victims of his earlier con. Roy says he will beg her forgiveness but Betty says she is "beyond him now." Just as she prepares to leave the house, Roy locks the door and attacks her – but she manages to fend him off before he is confronted by Bryn's associate and the Polish butcher whom he previously cheated. Betty then leaves the house as Roy, defiant to the last and refusing to pay his clients back, is consequently beaten up. Weeks later, Roy, having suffered a severe stroke during the fight, is shown in hospital against a painted backdrop of a beach. Vincent pays him a visit. Roy is unable to speak or move. Vincent gives him a drink and says "Pretend it's champagne" and the liquid dribbles out of Roy's paralysed mouth. In the final scene, Betty is shown living happily with her extended family.

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