Web of Lies (2009)

Very disappointing...

Fantastic!

Expected more

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

There is a memorable moment early in the film where Jerrod the ex-con hacker explains to his computer geek/security expert Abby that Isidore of Seville was a great scholar and saint in the Christian church of the early Middle Ages. In the modern age, Isidore has come to be associated with the internet, as is evident in this tribute: "We beseech Thee that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, bishop and doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter." The preceding words of the patron saint of computers were clearly not heeded by some very bad people who set up poor Abby and her boyfriend Jerrod for hacking into a high tech mainframe to divert $291 million in funds from the firm's customers.Abby takes it upon her broad shoulders to track down the culprits and clear her name. The plot of this film was intricately designed and led to suspenseful action and twists. Some of the details were unclear, such as the identity of Simon Davies. Was he killed in lieu of Jerrod? Or, was he the young man who met Abby in the U-Phoric nightclub, then attempted to murder her? There were moments when the narrative became far too intricate.SPOILER ALERT: One key line to unraveling the mystery is uttered by an apparently very nice man, who says, "Good girl, Abby." The line seems to come out of nowhere as Abby is struggling to learn the truth of her tragic dilemma. She was playing a dangerous game and found support from very few souls in a cutthroat world. But watching over her was the character named Spider, who served in the capacity of St. Isidore to protect the heroine while wading in dangerous waters.

I thought it was lean, suspenseful and had sharply drawn characters. I liked Marjandra as Maria in Roswell- so I'm biased.Can it be that the title 'Web of Lies' in a major film required that this film's rights be bought so it could be buried and not confused with the major theatrical release - and/or a TV series of that name? If so could it be re-released under another title? Could a foreign version be You-tubed like some TV already offered on You-Tube in German? It's worth seeing again... It was online on the Lifetime site very briefly- I never saw it on the air...Reply with any information. I'll be watching...

Web of Lies is definitely a film worth watching, i found it interesting, it had good twists and a good ending. After watching it I decided to see if I could buy it on DVD, but after searching a number of websites I came up empty, and then i read a review of Web of Lies on here, and it appears it is just a TV movie. I think a film as good as this should be out on DVD, I would definitely buy it and recommend it to people who like films like this one. I'm disappointed that I can't get it on DVD, but if it ever does come out on DVD, i'll keep an eye out for it and buy it as soon as I get the chance. If anybody knows if or when it will be out, please let me know, I don't want a good film to be restricted to the TV. It's a film worth keeping for years.Marty G

Summary: As someone else noted, I did not like the main character, and I found the overall plot to be too transparent. Frankly, for my tastes, they could just have put Andrew in a room by himself and filmed whatever happened for 90 minutes, and come up with a much better film. He's the only reason I watched it, and the entire 6/10 score is for him. Zero for everything else.Plot: How many times do we have to go back to the tired penny shaving nonsense made popular by Superman III, but also seen in the excellent Office Space, and numerous other films? This has been done to death, and more importantly, it has been done better. Just stop it already.Setting: Again, someone needs to tell Canadian filmmakers that Toronto, Vancouver, and in this case Montreal do not look like NYC. They just don't. Throwing in the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building every once in a while only serves to re-emphasize the difference. If Canada wants to make bad films, why don't we at least make them set in Canada? Why insult our neighbour to the south? If we're proud of this schlock (and somebody is, because our logos are all over the credits) then why isn't it set here? Costuming: I thought whoever decided what financial software people look like has obviously never stepped anywhere near such an outfit. These are very conservative environments. They don't dress like whores, even in the back.Direction/Editing/Writing: The visual aids were ridiculous. Did we really need to see disappearing coasters? Did we really need the sweetener-packet demonstration? I guess so. Because if you buy that you can follow a series of RANDOMLY generated accounts with ANOTHER series of randomly generated accounts, you do need a visual aid. Or maybe it's me. I could swear they told us the accounts were random. If the final account ISN'T random, then it would be easily found by examining the source code to determine how the final account is decided.Computer Effects: Speaking of source code, since when is it executable? When does a comment line suddenly become a command prompt? If you're going to go to the trouble to mock up a computer screen, at least give the audience a little credit.