Empire Of Lies

Bluesky

Dave Harris (Joseph Millson) has been waiting for somebody to come for a long time. He always knew that they were out there, and that against them he had very little power. He tried hard to conceal himself by going off the grid, moving to the little caravan out in the fields. He set up what defences he could and patrolled regularly to watch out for signs of trouble, but it was only a matter of time.

Marching through the wet grass carrying her gear, her phone set to record, the young woman (Natalie Spence) scarcely needs to say that she’s there from the press, whom he struggled to shake off after the trial, after they made everybody think that he had a hand in his daughter’s death. If she gives away his location, it will all be over. He tries telling her to leave, but he already knows she won’t go – as do viewers, because it wouldn’t be much of a film if she did.

Playing out as a two-hander, Matthew Hope’s low budget thriller is a exercise in what can be achieved with just two actors, a caravan and a field. The talent is well matched. Dave is paranoid – to the point where he would easily merit a diagnosis – and the woman (whose name he refuses to hear) may have a streak of youthful naivety, but Millson and Spence find a good balance between he two of them. This is essential to the shifting balance of power as the woman asks some decidedly unjournalistic questions and Dave, despite his determination never to hurt anybody, finds himself struggling to contain a panic which could easily tip over into aggression.

Of course, it’s being mysterious for a reason, and many viewers will figure out the twist before the end, but fortunately it doesn’t rely on that. There’s a profound sadness to what has happened to Dave. He’s the kind of character whose ideas could seem ugly and socially damaging in another context, but out here, with only himself to hurt, he has fallen into an introspective spiral. The odds of him finding a way out seem slim. If the woman offers an opportunity for escape, it may not be in the way that we would want.

There is arguably a risk involved with this kind of material. Dave talks quite a bit about some of the conspiracy theories that he believes in, and I would urge viewers who are curious about them to be vey cautious about where they look them up. The internet is full of traps for the unwary and it’s all too easy to get caught in a dangerous spiral oneself. That said, there are places where even Dave draws the line, and the way he talks about that, the little hints of the sense of humour he might once have had, show us something of the man who was there before all this, and might still be there underneath it all. It’s enough to make the events of the film feel like they matter.

Source