Review: The Lesson – a gripping British thriller

Julie Delpy and Daryl McCormack in The Lesson (2023). Photo / Gordon Timpen, SMPSP / Egoli & Tossel / Tutor Film Ltd
The Lesson (R, 103 mins). Streaming on Netflix.
Directed by Alice Troughton.
Reviewed by Jen Shieff.
In this well-paced British thriller, the fictional famous writer J.M. Sinclair (Richard E. Grant) thinly disguises his tyrannical tendencies with a studied smile designed to let him dominate any situation.
His main target is his own privileged family, who have a closely guarded, very sad secret.
Liam (Daryl McCormack), last seen tutoring Emma Thompson’s Nancy in Good Luck to You Leo Grande (2022), is hired to tutor Bertie (Stephen McMillan), the moody son of Sinclair and his wife Helene (Julie Delpy), a frosty curator of high-end fine art.
Bertie’s parents want him to get a place at Oxford to read English and Liam, a talented but so far unpublished writer, comes highly recommended.
It would be fascinating to know what Ellis the butler (Crispin Letts), the only character in the ensemble cast who doesn’t change significantly during the course of the film, really saw, and thought, when he lets Liam into the Sinclairs’ family home, aware he’s about to be thrown to the lion.
Not that Ellis would be able to reveal anything as he, like Liam, has undoubtedly had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
The setting is 99% that family home, an isolated country estate, all very beautiful, with a rolling lawn and a charming lake, but there are sinister undercurrents everywhere.
As with Sinclair’s character, there’s something mysterious and ugly brewing just below the surface.
Alex MacKeith’s suitably spare script deftly creates a suspenseful atmosphere, through lines such as Helene’s when she conspiratorially gives Liam advice on how to behave towards her husband: “We don’t talk about his work. We don’t talk about Felix. Follow those rules and you should be fine.”
It’s clear from the outset Sinclair is out only for himself, and that no good can come of that attitude when he quite casually says to an audience of acolytes: “Now, average writers attempt originality. They fail. Universally. Good writers have the sense to borrow from their betters. But great … great writers … steal’.
Sinclair’s arrogance and cruelty, along with his belief that other people’s writing belongs to him, have deeply affected his sons, one living, one dead, and now it’s affecting Liam, but he isn’t going to take Sinclair’s attitude lying down.
He has a plan for revenge, which he neatly executes, in one swoop freeing Helene, Bertie and himself.
Daryl McCormack’s Liam is an underdog reminiscent of Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (2023).
Talking as if to Liam, director Alice Troughton says, “Do you know which fork to use or what kind of tie to wear to dinner? Do you recognise the music playing?”
She goes on to explain her film is “about haves and have-nots and the tiny exclusions we do ruthlessly as a culture. But this is an opportunity Liam hasn’t had before, and he’s going to maximise it”.
There’s a scene towards the end that’s a heavy-handed contrast with the creepy restraint of the rest of the film, but that’s a small niggle.
The film overall is a very good watch.
★★★★