WHERE TRUTH LIES is variously a campy horror movie, a psychological dissertation on the subjective nature of truth, a melodrama about rewriting past inequities, and a social-problem drama about the link between mental illness and alcoholism. This complicated chiller vitiates its impact by
rehashing its hero's troubled past while skimping on his rehabilitation/amateur detective work in the present.
Psychiatrist Dr. Ian Lazarre (John Savage) has been sinking into alcoholism and mental instability since the death of his wife, Wendy (Candice Daly), in an alcohol-related car crash he believes he could have prevented. Riddled with guilt, he has also worn down the forbearance of his second wife,
Teresa (Candice Daly). As his mind disintegrates, Lazarre's best friend and attorney, Joe McNamara (Eric Pierpoint), persuades Teresa to entrust Lazarre to Dr. Vernon Renquist (Malcolm McDowell) for commitment at the unorthodox Blackhurst Institute. What neither Lazarre nor Teresa realizes is that
Wendy was murdered by Joe during a rape attempt. Pathologically jealous of Lazarre, Joe arranged his crime to look like a drunk-driving accident and has dedicated his life to ruining Lazarre.
Staffed by a vocational sadist, James (Sam Jones), and a former prostitute, Raquel (Kim Cattrall), the Blackhurst Institute is home to Dr. Renquist's unproven drug therapies. Clinging to sanity after detoxification, Lazarre resists Renquist's program of drug-induced nightmares and begins to
confront his demons on his own terms. Meanwhile, Joe sets out to seduce the now- vulnerable Teresa. Summoning up all his mental and physical strength, Lazarre escapes from the Institute. Before Lazarre can intervene, Joe rapes and strangles Teresa. Lazarre murders Joe, only to be condemned for
Teresa's murder as well. Reincarcerated in Renquist's madhouse, Lazarre accepts his ironic institutionalization with the knowledge that Joe has been stopped and because he now knows the truth about his past.
This cynical movie never reconciles its conflicting filmic identities. It builds suspense by withholding the facts of Joe's pathology, but the potential for fright dissipates in a welter of cross-purposes. Instead of opting for a satisfyingly straightforward recovery thriller in which Lazarre
attains flashes of lucidity that enable him to conquer his drinking problem and foil a killer, this stylistically florid movie veers into a fantasia about bogus mind experimentation. Malcolm McDowell's psychological shaman remains peripheral to the action, never becoming a worthy opponent for the
embattled Lazarre. Although its depiction of Lazarre's splintering mind is highly effective in cinematic terms, WHERE TRUTH LIES never builds this visual strength into a consistently satisfying genre approach. (Graphic violence, extreme profanity, nudity, sexual situations, adult situations,
substance abuse.) leave a comment
