Movie Review: ‘The Lesson’

Review by Hunter Miele

When we think of the literary world we aren’t often reminded of lies and deceit, but rather of boring introverts that spend night after night cooped up at home and frantically typing away, likely with a bottle of whiskey in hand. But “The Lesson” paints a much more scandalous picture of the life of an A-List author. Director Alice Troughton provides a tense glimpse into the life of a British writer with this intellectual thriller that might as well be the love child of “Whiplash” and “Parasite”.

Death, romance and deception run rampant on the sprawling estate of renowned author J.M. Sinclair (Richard E. Grant). Sinclair, a literary superstar, hasn’t completed a novel since his son’s suicide. While his entire fanbase has assumed that he’s retired, Liam (Daryl McCormack) gets the rare chance to take a peek into the author’s private life when he lands a job as Sinclair’s son’s tutor while he prepares for his Oxford entrance examinations. Liam, a talented wordsmith with a photographic memory, idolizes Sinclair, a pompous and pretentious superstar in his field. Bertie (Stephen McMillan), Sinclair’s son, and Hélène (Julie Delpy), his wife, appear to exist in a constant state of fear of their smug and cruel family member, yet his impressive literary merits and domineering demeanor give way to their need for his approval.

Bertie, initially despising Liam, ends up turning to him for comfort and confiding in him that he’s been neglected by his father for as long as he can remember. And when he’s not being neglected he’s being ridiculed and berated for not being talented enough (although according to Liam, Bertie has plenty of talent). As Bertie confides more and more in Liam, more information about the tragic drowning death of his brother Felix is uncovered. Bertie tells Liam about Felix’s love of the Rhododendron, a beautiful plant that emits deadly toxins. The Rhododendron metaphor feels overly campy for the film by not lending as much as it could toward the development of the plot.

Liam takes notes on the oddities and secrets that he discovers about the family in between scrawling in a massive notebook- contributing to the novel that he’s been handwriting (and of course he’ll later regret not using a computer) for years. Once he finally gets the chance to show his idol his work he’s met with harsh criticism. Liam then turns his back on Sinclair and, with the help of Hélène, the secrets really start to become exposed. We eventually learn that maybe Liam had a role on the estate other than tutor.

“Good writers borrow… Great writers steal”. “The Lesson” exhausts this line given in an interview by Sinclair and builds a plot around it that lacks excitement and thinks it’s bold when in reality it’s quite cliché . Initially intriguing, the film is a slow, slow burn until the less-than-explosive climax. “The Lesson” has the feel of a campy thriller, but its intellectual, literary nature leads to much less of a juicy scandal than it feels like we were in for- essentially the equivalent of a pulp novel without the shock value.