So states the risk management owner of a service that creates 'cover lies' for adulterous affairs. And up to a point that statement makes Ray Elliott (Steve Coogan) seem like an honest if distorted service provider, covering the tracks with high technology so that cheating husbands can have affairs without the danger of their wives' discovery.
Smartly written by Noah Hawley and directed with style by Matt Checkowski and Kurt Mattila, LIES & ALIBIS delivers a new twist to suspense films laced with comedy yet filled with tension, murder, and all manner of underground derring-do. Ray Elliott is a smooth talker who manages to discreetly provide protection for business men who cheat on their wives using photographers to set up situations, falsifying credit cards and names and hotel room reservations, staging gifts for suspicious wives to stave off their concerns, etc. All proceeds well until Ray's primary client Robert Hatch (James Brolin) hires Ray to cover his son Wendell's (James Marsden) Santa Barbara bed and breakfast, pre-wedding escapade with a S&M girlfriend of one Hannibal (John Leguizamo) - a spree that carries out a bit too far in that the girl is dead by Wendell's inadvertent orders during the 'game'. Sam takes on the voluptuous Lola (Rebecca Romijn) as his new assistant and discovers she is as brainy as she is beautiful. He employs her to help his cover of the murder (Ray had switched IDs with Wendell in a planned alibi cover for the fling), breaking his own rules, and Lola ends up saving the day through a manner of crosses and double crosses that fling off the screen so fast that it takes powerful concentration to keep the story progress straight - just the way coordinated crime behaves! The manner in which this spree takes place involves a large cast including Jon Polito, Deborah Kara Unger, Selma Blair, Sam Elliott and a fine crew of bit players. Steve Coogan and Rebecca Romijn make the whole caper tick like a time bomb, giving the film elegance and just the right balance of noir and romance. The rapid-fire cinematography is by Enrique Chediak and the always dependable Alexandre Desplat provides the musical score (with a heavy nod to Offenbach's Barcarolle from 'Tales of Hoffman'). For an evening of fast-paced intrigue, romance, tension, and creative writing and acting, LIES & ALIBIS is a sure bet. Grady Harp
