No. 47 A Little White Lie (2022) 93 of 100
If you look up ‘nice’ in the dictionary you wouldn’t find this film as that’s not how dictionaries work, but you would get a definition that would aptly describe this gentle and slightly affecting comedy drama. Kate Hudson plays an English professor who is organising a literary festival for her small university. The festival is in trouble as the lack of a star guest has threatened their funding. In desperation she invites reclusive writer CP Shriver, who wrote one book and disappeared from sight. No one has a picture of the writer who is talked about in similar tones to JD Salinger. The invite letter lands in the mailbox of a lonely handyman also named Shriver. He lives alone with his lovely orange cat and as he has a whisky with his dinner we know he’s a total drunk. He takes the invite to show a friend at the pub and, despite realising it’s a case of mistaken identity, Shriver allows his friend to accept the invite on his behalf. Soon Shriver is on the plane to the...