Separate Lies

Infobox Film
name = Separate Lies

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image_size =
caption = Original film poster
director = Julian Fellowes
producer = Steve Clark-Hall
Christian Colson
writer = Nigel Balchin (novel)
Julian Fellowes (screenplay)
narrator =
starring = Tom Wilkinson
Emily Watson
Rupert Everett
Richenda Carey
music = Stanislas Syrewicz
cinematography = Tony Pierce-Roberts
editing = Alex Mackie
Martin Walsh
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = 16 September, 2005(US)
runtime = 85 min
country = UK
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.foxsearchlight.com/separatelies/
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0369053

"Separate Lies" is a 2005 British drama film directed by Julian Fellowes who also wrote the screenplay, updating the 1951 novel "A Way Through the Wood" by Nigel Balchin that had already been turned into a stage play under the title "Waiting for Gillian" in 1957. The film stars Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson and Rupert Everett. Separate Lies marked the directorial debut of Julian Fellowes, who has worked mostly as an actor and won an Academy Award with his screenplay for Altman's "Gosford Park".

Plot

'No life is perfect - even if it seems to be,' says James Manning, a wealthy, London solicitor. When it comes to matters of right and wrong, he likes to think of himself as inflexible. Anne, his much younger wife is accommodating and dutiful and likes the life they lead, the house in London, the Buckinghamshire hideaway. The couple’s seem to have it all. Events soon will prove them wrong.

In the village, a neighbor has reappeared. This is William Bule, son of a leading local family. He has recently returned from America, a bad marriage, and two children whose ages he cannot bother to remember. Bill is indolent and insinuating and at the village cricket match, he catches Anne's eye, and it is because of him that she tells her reluctant husband that they should have neighbors over for drinks. However, that evening Manning has to stay in the city to work late. Before the party is set to begin, a speeding car sideswipes a man bicycling along a village lane. The man is hurled to the ground and dies a few days later. He was the husband of Maggie, the Manning’s housekeeper.

Anne takes a special interest in Maggies’s well-being, but James, can not understand her sudden teary investment in their housekeeper’s personal life. James, whose priorities have become skewed toward work rather than toward his wife, soon becomes suspicious that Bill may be involved in that fatal hit-and-run. When he confronts him, Bill initially denies the allegation, but soon tells him that the next day he would go to the police and confess if that is what he wants, although he sees not reason that would be benefit from his confessions. Back home, when James tells his wife about his conversation with Bill she has also some striking confessions to make. Anne, reveals one hurtful secret while making a salad: She was actually driving Bill’s car when drunk and careless she accidentally hit the cyclist. Artfully arranging the ingredients on a platter, she proceeds to inform her already distraught husband that she has also been having an affair with Bill. Telling her story, she asserts that Bill does not really "mean" anything to her. Because he doesn't make demands or judge her, as James does in little, incessant ways. Precisely because he's a lout, Bill makes her feel oddly liberated, if not precisely loved.

As a Buckinghamshire police inspector questions the Mannings and Bill about the accident, James is torn between doing the right thing and maintaining appearances at all costs. James really loves his wife and the couple takes a trip to Wales in an effort to leave the accident, their guilt and their marital troubles behind.

Maggie, whose husband was killed, witnessed the accident: She saw the car and identifies it as belonging to Bill Bule. However her testimony might be bias. Maggie knows William Bule, well; she worked for his family until she was dismissed accused of stealing. It was Anne who gave her a new start in the village.

Cast

* Tom Wilkinson - James Manning
* Emily Watson – Anne Manning
*Rupert Everett –Bill Bule
* David Harewood - Inspector Marshall
* Linda Bassett – Maggie
* Hermione Norris - Priscilla
* John Warnaby - Simon
* Linda Basset - Maggie
* John Neville - Lord Rawston

Quotes

"No life is perfect, though it may seem to be. Secrets and discontent lie hidden beneath the smoothest surface. In this, as in so many things, my life was no exception."- James Manning (Tom Wilkinson)

External links

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* [http://www.foxsearchlight.com/separatelies/ Official Website at Fox Searchlight]