Where Truth Lies (1996)

Driven to drink by his wife's death, a tormented doctor is committed to an experimental rehab.

Director:

William H. Molina

Writer:

Ted Perkins

Stars:

John Savage, Kim Cattrall, Malcolm McDowell

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Savage	...	Dr. Ian Lazarre
Kim Cattrall	...	Racquel Chambers
Malcolm McDowell	...	Dr. Vernon Renquist
Candice Daly	...	Wendy / Teresa Lazarre
Eric Pierpoint	...	Joe McNamara
Sam J. Jones	...	James (as Sam Jones)
Denis Forest	...	Jonas Kellar
David St. James	...	Van Ness
Timothy Patrick Quill	...	Prisoner
Barry Lee Pearl	...	Stan Horowitz
Rance Howard	...	Judge Bloom
Jean Speegle Howard	...	Mrs. Gloria Smith
Paul Sarnoff	...	Marty the Bartender
Danielle Nicolet	...	Lisa
Sharon Mendel	...	Helene Smith

Storyline

After the death of his beloved wife Wendy, the psychologist Dr. Ian Lazarre becomes alcoholic. His second wife Teresa Lazarre has just left him but together with his lawyer and best friend Joe McNamara, they convince Ian to go to rehab. They bring him to the Blackhurst Institute, where Dr. Vernon Renquist submits Ian to an experimental treatment with the support of the nurses Racquel Chambers and the strong James. However Ian becomes aggressive and delusional, and believes Dr. Renquist is damaging his brain with the medication and Teresa is cheating him with Joe. Is Ian right or becoming deranged?

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Plot Keywords:

betrayal by a friend | betrayal | downward spiral | nurse | white coat | 

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Taglines:

It's all in your head...

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence including two rape scenes, some sexuality and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

June 1996 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Hysteria

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Silverline Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

When Nurse Racquel takes Dr. Lazarre to see his visitors, she is in the cell wearing flat shoes, then in the corridor she is wearing high heels and in the visitors room she is back in flat shoes.

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Soundtracks

"The Great Mass in C Minor, KV 427
Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performed by The Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin (as Berlin Rundfunk Orchestra)
Courtesy of Berlin Classics / Edel America Records, Inc.

User Reviews

Mind Games

(There are Spoilers) Living with the tragic death of his first wife Wendy, Candice Daly, psychiatrist Dr. Ian Lazzare, John Savage, can't keep her out of his mind even after re-marrying a woman who's an exact replica of Wendy Teresa also Candice Daly with her blond hair colored black.

Becoming a hopeless alcoholic Dr. Lazarre drinking become so acute that Teresa leaves him and that leads to Dr. Lazarre attempting to kill himself. Committed to the Blackhurst Instatute by Teresa and Dr. Lazarre's friend and personal lawyer John McNamra, Eric Pierpoint, Dr. Lazarre is put on drugs and kept from getting any sleep to shock him out of his drinking problems. But as we, and Dr. Lazare, also see his treatment has nothing at all to do with curing him but experimenting with his mind, or what's left of it, to see what make him tick with the experiments being conducted by the head of the institute the weird Dr. Vernon Requist, Malcolm McDowell.

You have trouble with understanding the movie "Where Truth Lies" right from the start with Wendy's accident that later in the film turns out to be her murder. There's also this convict was treated by Dr. Lazarr who seemed to have later been executed a Jonas Keller, Denis Forest, who keeps popping up in the movie as if he were Dr. Lazarre's conscience or alter-ego. You at first think that Keller was the real reason for Wendy's death but it turns out that he had nothing to do with it so why is he made to be so important in the film not only in regard to Wendy's murder but to Dr. Lazarre himself?

At the Blackhurst Institute were at first given the impression that Dr. Renquist and his head nurse Racquel Cambers, Kim Cattrall, are not what they seem to be. It's even indicted that Nurse Chambers is a junkie that Dr. Renquist experimented with like he's doing with Dr. Lzarre. But as the movie moves to it's surprising conclusion it obvious that all that information we get from the movie makers of "Where truth Lies" are red herrings to throw us off what's really going on and why Dr. Lazarre was committed in the institute in the first place.

The big surprise in the movie is not that surprising at all since we get a good idea to who's behind Dr. Lazarre's interment and what the reasons are for it is. Which Dr. Lazarre himself realizes but after it's too late for him to stop the person from murdering his second wife Teresa like he did his first wife Wendy. Very depressing ending where the killer gets poor Dr. Lazarre implicated in Wendy's murder only after he himself is killed by an outraged Dr. Lazarre, who earlier escaped from the Blackhurst institute, only to end up being committed for life to a mental hospital for the criminally insane.

Passable thriller with John Savage doing his best as a man being driven over the edge in order to cure him of an mental illness that he only got from being institutionalized to cure it when he didn't have it in the first place.