Separate Lies

Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson are impeccable as a wealthy British couple whose failing marriage spirals out-of-control when a hit-and-run accident leaves a man on a bicycle dead on a country road in this beguiling drama. Screenwriter Julian Fellows ("Gosford Park") makes an impressive directorial debut with his adaptation of Nigel Balchin's novel "A Way Through The Wood" in which a web of lies connect James Manning (Wilkinson) and his wife Anne (Watson) to their ever-blasé neighbor Bill Bule (Rupert Everett). James Manning is forced to continually lower his strongly held morals when answers to the crime begin to emerge. "Separate Lies" is a hearty mystery/drama that blooms as a succinct social critique of British aristocracy.      
Rated R. 87 mins. (B+) (Three Stars)