Netflix Top 10: Everyone is a suspect in Dangerous Lies
Dangerous Lies fought off stiff competition this week to land the top spot in the Netflix Top10. Should you be adding the Camila Mendes film to your list?
There were several new releases on Netflix this week, including multiple movies. With the pandemic keeping movie theaters closed, streaming services are our one way to enjoy new releases collectively. This weekend, Netflix’s new thriller Dangerous Lies shot up to the top of the digital box office.
The next movies in line were Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction and the Jeffrey Wright, Ashton Sanders (Moonlight) feature All Day and a Night. Extraction was the number one movie last week and appears to have held on for a strong second weekend as well. So why was Dangerous Lies the winner?
The easy answer is that it is much more family friendly than the other two. There is some violence and some romantic situations, but the film is rated TV-14, and the other two are rated R. This was more likely to be the choice of those who didn’t want the intense violence, language, or nudity of the other two. But what are the other factors?
Dangerous Lies Cast
Another factor that likely drew Netflix viewers to Dangerous Lies is the cast. Camila Mendes plays the lead in the film and Netflix viewers are very familiar with her work between Riverdale and The Perfect Date. There were many viewers who likely tuned in to see what she could do as the lead in a film.
Meanwhile, her husband is played by Jessie T. Usher. Usher plays A-Train in the Prime Video hit The Boys, and he was in the Samuel L. Jackson film Shaft and played Will Smith’s son in the Independence Day sequel. Between those roles and his roles in Level Up, Survivor’s Remorse, and the film Almost Christmas, his face is a familiar one for a lot of people.
Dangerous Lies Story
In Dangerous Lies, Mendes and Usher play Katie and Adam. They’re a young couple who are just getting by and barely doing so until Katie lands a job as a caregiver for an old man with no family who subsequently passes away and leaves her everything.
From the very beginning, there are a lot of suspicious things going on between the way the old man treats Katie before he passes and how he talks about his life. There’s a weird guy who seems way too determined to buy the house, and the police don’t seem to trust that the old man would just leave his house to this young couple.
As the movie goes along, everyone is suspicious of everyone else. Every detail matters as you try to figure out what is going on. I try to avoid spoilers but there is one detail revealed very early in the movie that I noticed because I had subtitles on. If you aren’t listening closely, there are some later scenes that will seem to come out of nowhere.
Is Dangerous Lies good?
Whether or not the movie is good is going to be based on how you watch movies. If you watch movies to analyze every detail with a microscope, Dangerous Lies is going to frustrate you. While the story itself doesn’t have a ton of technical issues, the couple makes a lot of dumb mistakes that make their activities seem even more suspicious than they had to be. We can chalk this up to naivety, but at one point, I wanted to see everybody lose in this movie.
It’s hard to decide who the good guys and the bad guys are. Dangerous Lies does a great job of making you suspect that everyone is guilty of something, even Katie and Adam. There are too many coincidences and too many random people showing up. If you are the type that likes to unravel a mystery, you will enjoy this movie for that alone.
My family and I paused the film several times to talk through what was happening and discuss various theories.
Dangerous Lies will not be winning any awards, but it was definitely a fun experience. It’s the type of movie you want to watch on a movie night and discuss with friends or family. It’s an interactive experience with a lot of twists and turns that keeps you guessing. While there were many things our leads did that didn’t help their situation, when you add their desperation to their youth, it is easy to accept those decisions.
Go into Dangerous Lies with a mindset of figuring out what’s happening and enjoy the ride.
Dangerous Lies is currently streaming on Netflix.