Lying

Lying

Year: 2006

Runtime: 94 mins

Language: English

Director: M. Blash

DramaFamily

A long weekend in the countryside brings five women together—four of whom are virtually strangers. As they try to navigate the subtleties of social interaction, a veneer of calm gives way to a tangled web of deception, revealing that too many lies are lurking beneath the placid surface.

Tense
Ambiguous ending
Moderately emotional
Medium intensity
Slow pacing
Moderate complexity

Warning: spoilers below!

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Timeline & Setting – Lying (2006)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Lying (2006). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Location

Upstate New York country house

Set at a large country home in upstate New York, the story unfolds on Megan's secluded property. The house sits near a wooded perimeter, with a neighbor's kitchen nearby and a courtyard where a video art project is staged. The isolation is reinforced by downed phone lines, creating a pressure cooker environment that heightens tension among the four women.

🏡 Isolated mansion 🗝️ Secrets 👭 Female dynamics

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 12:29

Main Characters – Lying (2006)

Meet the key characters of Lying (2006), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Megan (Chloë Sevigny)

Megan is an heiress who hosts a weekend for her invited guests at her expansive country home. She projects control and privilege, hinting at a troubled family history while keeping the real ownership of the house opaque. She manipulates the group by creating a sense of isolation and secrecy, hinting at a hidden motive behind the weekend. Her willingness to lie about age and ownership reveals a calculating, self-protective streak.

🏡 Rich 🕵️‍♀️ Manipulative 🧪 Mysterious past

Grace (Jena Malone)

Grace is an inquisitive museum intern who dives into Megan's past. She is perceptive and confronts Megan with questions about deceased parents and the house's ownership. When she finds incriminating documents, she pushes the others to leave, even as trust among the group cracks.

🧭 Curious 🔎 Skeptical 🧪 Investigative

Sarah (Leelee Sobieski)

Sarah is a neighbor whose house borders Megan's property. She observes the women from her kitchen and interacts only sparingly, waving flags to attract attention. She becomes a passive witness to the escalating mystery, aware of the secrecy but not fully involved until the morning after the incident with the missing boy.

🧭 Neighbor 🕵️‍♀️ Observant 🧬 Indirectly involved

Hella (Halley Wegryn Gross)

Hella is a fellow intern who participates in the weekend but remains emotionally restrained. She challenges Grace's confrontations and shares a bond with Megan, acting as both confidante and ally in maintaining the illusion. She remains cautious and tries to preserve the group's safety, even as the truth begins to surface.

🧭 Complicit 🗝️ Reserved 🧪 Analytical

Linda (Maya Goldsmith)

Linda is another intern who is drawn into Megan's world but grows increasingly confused by the inconsistencies. She questions the narrative around the house and Megan's claims as photos, documents, and stories accumulate. Her presence helps catalyze the unraveling of Megan's carefully constructed image.

🧭 Curious 🔎 Skeptical 🧪 Insightful

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 12:29

Major Themes – Lying (2006)

Explore the central themes of Lying (2006), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

🕵️‍♀️ Deception

Deception threads through every interaction, as Megan's public persona hides a web of lies about her past and the house's true ownership. The women weigh trust against suspicion, each discovery peeling back layers of truth and pretense. The weekend becomes a test of perception, where what is said is as important as what is concealed. The film uses this tension to explore power dynamics and the fragile nature of friendship under pressure.

💰 Wealth & Inheritance

Money, property, and lineage drive the conflict, with Megan leveraging her status to shape the weekend's dynamics. The discovery of bills and documents reveals a contested claim to the house, challenging the illusion of ownership. The money's influence distorts relationships, highlighting who controls a narrative and who pays the price. The theme interrogates how wealth can isolate individuals while simultaneously binding them to each other through secrets.

👭 Female Dynamics

The four women navigate competition, curiosity, and care within an enclosed space. Boundaries blur as secrets emerge and loyalties shift, testing trust. Isolation amplifies vulnerability and resilience, showing how solidarity forms and fractures. The dynamics reveal both solidarity and danger when women confront manipulation and truth.

🗝️ Past & Family History

Past events haunt Megan and the surrounding community, from deceased parents to a mysterious brother. The missing boy incident adds a layer of rumor and memory, forcing characters to question what really happened in the past. The neighbor's observations and the hidden documentation connect the present tension to long-buried histories. The narrative suggests that who we are is shaped as much by what we forget as by what we remember.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 12:29

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Explore Movie Threads

Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.

Slow burn tension like in Lying

Stories where quiet tension in confined spaces slowly suffocates the characters.If you liked the quiet, ominous buildup in Lying, explore more movies that master slow burn psychological unease. These similar dramas and thrillers use deliberate pacing and confined settings to create intense atmosphere, focusing on social tension and deception for viewers who appreciate subtle, character-driven suspense.

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Narrative Summary

Narratives in this thread often begin with a calm, mundane surface that gradually fractures under the weight of hidden truths and social pressures. The plot unfolds through revelations in dialogue and shifting alliances, prioritizing psychological unraveling over physical action, and frequently leading to an ambiguous or unsettling conclusion.

Why These Movies?

Movies are grouped here for their shared commitment to a slow, atmospheric build of tension. They prioritize mood over plot speed, creating a cohesive experience defined by a sense of impending doom, nuanced character studies, and a focus on the psychological impact of confinement and deception.

Movies about social deception like Lying

Narratives about lies that unravel tightly knit social groups from within.For viewers who enjoyed the web of lies in Lying, this collection features similar movies about deceptive social facades. These films explore psychological drama and class dynamics within small groups, focusing on the tension and anxiety that erupt when secrets threaten superficial relationships.

deceptiveanxioussocial anxietypsychological dramaunravelingtense interactionssuperficialisolation

Narrative Summary

The narrative pattern follows a protagonist (or multiple characters) who presents a fraudulent identity to a group. The story charts the increasing difficulty of maintaining the lie as suspicions grow, leading to a climax where the deception collapses, often leaving relationships permanently damaged and the true motives of the characters hauntingly ambiguous.

Why These Movies?

These films share a core focus on the theme of deception as a narrative engine. They are united by their exploration of social anxiety, the performance of identity, and the specific, tense vibe of watching a house of cards built on lies inevitably fall.

Unlock the Full Story of Lying

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Lying Summary

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Lying Summary

Lying Timeline

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Lying Timeline

Lying Spoiler-Free Summary

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Lying Spoiler-Free Summary

More About Lying

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Lying (2006) Plot Summary & Movie Recap

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Lying (2006) Spoiler-Free Summary & Key Flow