If there is a lesson of its own to take away from the thriller that is The Lesson, directed by Alice Troughton and written by Alex MacKeith, it is that less can often be more. Some of the most authentically tense films are those that rely on ratcheting up the tension and never overplaying its hand. Think of how Michael Haneke’s enduring 2005 film Caché just kept withholding much of its particulars which were integral to creating its sense of dread. Even in moments of confrontation, the way it teased out a growing unease that was also more grounded ensured we could never look away from the panic playing out before us.

There was ephemeral violence, yes, but it was tied to the more eternal terror that comes from observing lies slowly collapsing around people. When you then have talented actors to embody the characters who find themselves caught up in this more subtle descent into destruction, the experience that is crafted can be even more shattering than one built around spectacle. There are echoes of this in The Lesson, which had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, though they nearly become drowned by a conclusion that threatens to wash its strengths away entirely. And yet, a more than capable cast manages to weather most of its persistent narrative storms to make for a well-acted thriller where you hang on every single word the characters utter that still never quite reaches the full potential of its story.

This all begins with an author talk where we meet Liam Sommers (Daryl McCormack) being asked about a book with a particularly revealing story that he has written. It is an opening that is the first of a couple of different moments which, while never living up to this comparison, felt a bit reminiscent of last year’s titanically good TÁR. The difference to it is that this conversation is the furthest into the future the story will get, making it one of many films that strives to create a sort of dramatic irony via forced narrative framing when, more often than not, this would have been far more impactful had it been revealed at the end. Regardless, we then jump back in time to learn about how Liam is an aspiring author who has recently gotten a gig that his agent all but tells him he has to take. Specifically, he will go to work for famed author J.M. Sinclair (Richard E. Grant) and his wife Hélène (Julie Delpy) by tutoring their son Bertie (Stephen McMillan) for his upcoming exams. He will do so at their estate that, as the wealthy are wont to do, is shut off from the rest of the world. The stage is then set as we come to see that all is not well with the Sinclairs following a loss that has brought into focus existing fault lines. The naive Liam then finds himself caught up in their domestic discord.

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‘The Lesson’ Is Most Thrilling When Playing Everything More Subtly
Image via Bleecker Street

The first two-thirds of the film are where this thriller is at its best. Seeing McCormack, a younger actor who was spectacular in last year’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, and Grant, a veteran performer who is great in just about everything including the recent Can You Ever Forgive Me?, begin to circle each other is just proper fun. Each brings a real verve to their respective characters, making it easy to get swept up in piecing together their motivations even as the escalations start to get a bit out of hand. McCormack embodies a cautious yet sly inquisitiveness, making Liam’s trait that he can remember nearly everything he has read a fitting one as we can feel him taking everything in. He is charming and charismatic in a manner that seemingly begins to win over the family. Grant as the Sinclair patriarch is his perfectly menacing opposite, a cruel man who has too won over the adoration of readers just as he instills a fear in his own family. An early dinner scene where he swoops in without saying much of anything before dictating the music they must listen to is delightfully dreadful.

Of course, this is merely the first course of what becomes a full melodramatic meal for Grant to sink his teeth into and chew up until there is not a morsel of the scenery he has not consumed. Just the leering look in his eyes or the echo of his laughter makes him more of a vulture than a man, willing to feast upon even his own family if it were to come to that. Delpy, always a dynamic performer even in small moments, captures the impact this has had on the matriarch in every deflection she must do. As Liam goes about his tutoring and eventually assists Sinclair with his latest book, the discoveries he begins to make bring everything to a breaking point. The longer the film stays in a sweet spot of subterfuge, with every stolen glance across the isolated estate and barbed remark carrying with it a potential for conflict, the more the film has us in its spell even as closing stumbles nearly breaks it all into pieces.

The Ending of ‘The Lesson’ Nearly Loses the Plot
Image via Bleecker Street

All of this to say, without going too far into the particulars, it is a film that thrives in its uncertainty and falters when it ultimately arrives at a more concrete, cliché conclusion. It effectively flirts with being an erotic thriller without fully diving in and dances with more existential questions about the nature of authorship before dulling this intrigue with a rather blunt ending. Its cast all keep it afloat, but only just. It would make for an interesting double feature with the Glenn Close film The Wife, but disclosing the precise reasons as to why would be to reveal too much. There is something fascinating about how the film, a thriller about storytelling that itself ends up hinging upon the writing of an ending, threatens to come apart as it approaches its own closing. That it holds together is a testament to the cast who it feels like are battling against clumsy escalations that go bigger and louder when the quieter moments carry with them a far more tactful deployment of emotion. Had it been more patient in its conclusion, it might have been as great as the ending written in the world of the film.

Rating: B-

The Lesson is in theaters starting July 7.