TV Review: Little White Lie August 6, 2008
Posted by gem in Older movies.Tags: drama, dublin, Elaine Cassidy, Film, Ireland, Irish, Irish drama, Irish TV, little white lie, RTE, short film., TV drama
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Elaine Cassidy, seen here as Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View, appeared on Irish TV this week as Annie in 'Little White Lie'.
The plot of Little White Lie was hardly original: boy does what he can to impress girl, even if it means glossing over the truth about his career and girl falls for boy with complicated consequences. More interesting was the fact that this little drama starred Elaine Cassidy, who was prominent in the early noughties for her roles in ‘Disco Pigs’ with Cillian Murphy and ‘The Others’ with Nicole Kidman. Then, suddenly, she seemed to disappear although an IMBD search would confirm her part in ‘The Lost World’ TV series and a leading role as Lucy Honeychurch in the 2007 TV version of ‘A Room with a View’. Cassidy’s ever youthful and somewhat innocent appearance may, perhaps, lessen her chances of leading lady roles but here, as children’s TV presenter, Annie, she is well cast. Andrew Bennet as her admirer John is a good match for her also and the main protagonists’ romantic relationship is saved from a descent into schmaltz by the comic turns of the other couple Cliona (Mary Murray) and Malcolm (David Pearse). Little White Lie sets out to prove that magical romance can exist even in modern day Dublin and some moments, such as John and Annie’s climb up a crane, are quirky enough to have been pulled from an indie movie (remember Garden State’s three youths standing on construction equipment in the pouring rain). While these moments of escapism do not quite redeem the predictable plotline, they nonetheless prove that Little White Lie has a good heart and the obvious happy ending would leave viewers satisfied..and possibly a little warm and fuzzy!
Cassidy, disappear over those years? No, as someone who has just recently discovered her, she just seems to have been building the body of work, including The Ghost Squad (although well-nigh impossible to get a copy of here in the US) and Fingersmith, both series on Brit TV (ITV and BBC, respectively). She’s done a couple of other films, but from what I can gather, the rest of her stuff seems to have been on largely onstage. And looking forward to her upcoming CBS TV series, Harper’s Island.
Yes you’re right; she has been working away quite a lot. What I should have said, I suppose, is that she disappeared from the immediate public eye for quite a while..or so it seemed to me. I actually just had a conversation the other day with a friend about what she was up to..and then suddenly she was back in the newspapers and on tv here. Hope to see more of her in the future.