When we talk about small, finely crafted, dialogue-driven gems with interesting characters and little or no CGI, it’s easy to say, “They don’t make ’em like that anymore,” but the good news is that’s not really accurate. They DO make ’em like that today, as evidenced by such recent releases as the Tom Hanks hit “A Man Called Otto” and the similarly themed “Living” (with an Oscar-nominated turn by Bill Nighy) and the Anna Kendrick drama “Alice, Darling” and now writer/director Michael Maren’s whimsical and sharply written and beautifully performed “A Little White Lie,” which among other things serves as a reminder Michael Shannon is incapable of delivering a performance that’s less than mesmerizing.
Based on the novel “Shriver” by Chris Belden, “A Little White Lie” is set primarily in and around the fictional Acheron University, a small and not terribly prestigious liberal arts school in California, where the struggling annual literary festival gets a much-needed boost with the news that the renowned and reclusive, Salinger-esque author Shriver, who hasn’t been seen in some 20 years, has accepted an invitation to be honored at the fest. This comes as great news and a welcome relief to the staff, which includes Kate Hudson’s Simone and Don Johnson’s Wasserman, and we know Wasserman is quirky because the guy gets around campus on a horse, an honest-to-goodness horse.
