The Sinclairs really seem to have it made. They live in a huge house on a ridiculously scenic estate (Germany standing in for England). Father J.M. is a successful novelist who spends his days repeating cliches (“Good writers borrow, great artists steal”) to rapt audiences willing to pretend that he invented them. Mother Helene (Julie Delpy) is an art curator who’s always dashing off to some prestigious show or other, and son Bertie (Stephen McMillan) is prepping for his interviews to read English at Oxford. Because people with great privilege always want more, the Sinclairs have hired a live-in tutor for Bertie, a personable young man named Liam (Daryl McCormack) who got a first in English but really wants to be a writer.
It doesn’t take Liam long to notice that there’s something off-kilter about the Sinclair household. They’re quite the passive-aggressive bunch, toward each other and toward him, and each is manipulative in their own special way. Even choosing the music to play at dinnertime is an occasion to put each other down, and at first poor Liam comes off like a country hick who doesn’t realize he’s being played for a fool. Of course he’s not as innocent as he seems, and has his own reasons for taking the job—sure he needs the money, but he’s also writing his thesis on Sinclair, something he hasn’t disclosed to the man himself, and is hoping to find some inside information that will set his work apart. Still, that’s a minor sin compared to what’s been going on in the Sinclair household, as we will gradually discover along with Liam—it’s a real house of horrors, genteel English variety, in which people act ever so polite while covertly stabbing each other in the back.
You can probably guess the big secret around which the plot revolves pretty easily, and the screenplay’s structure (it begins at the end, so most of the film is flashback) also gives quite a bit away. Neither is really a problem however, because The Lesson, a polished first film by Alice Troughton, is much more about the characters than the plot. That they’re stuck with each other in an isolated location distills the intensity of their interactions far beyond what would occur in a neutral location. The basic setup is reminiscent of any number of Agatha Christie novels, but actually reminds me most of Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, both for the generally peculiar tone of the characters’ interactions and for the way setting plays a crucial role in how things work out.
Richard E. Grant is an inspired choice for J.M.—his offbeat looks, haughty air, and ability to give the impression that he’s rotting from the inside out are the perfect match for a character who’s lost the thread but won’t admit it. Daryl McCormack is also perfectly cast as the striver who has be twice as smart and about ten times more tactful than the Sinclairs (who don’t miss an opportunity to remind him that he’s just the hired help) to make his way in their world. He’s no innocent, however, and proves more than equal to their mind games (thank goodness—it would be a very dull film otherwise). Julie Delpy has less to do but makes a strong impression when she’s on screen and proves that there’s more to her character than you originally think.
Independent of its story, The Lesson is a beautiful film to watch. Much credit goes to cinematographer Anna Patarakina, who makes the estate look impossibly perfect (there’s a lesson in that), an impression amplified by Isobel Waller-Bridge’s classically-influenced score. If the story’s a bit “been there, done that” there’s still a lot to like in this very promising first effort from Troughton. | Sarah Boslaugh
