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I’m not your fucking husband!”.
Strong words from a desperate man. Fin Davis’ directorial debut is a take on the contraints of anger and confusion which signinifys Anthony’s (Rory Wilton) addiction which eventually leads him to suffering and insanity. White Lies is a tale of a man who’s life is ruled by drugs, which evetually leads him to unforgivable actions.
Rory Wilton gives one of the best performances of his career and says it’s the hardest challenge in his acting career so far. “When I first looked at the script, which is brilliantly written by Fin Davis and Benjamin Lee Hicks, I thought fuck, can I say fuck? (laughs Rory) This is gonna be tough.” Rory goes on to say about how he prepared for such a complex role. “Well, instead of looking at the typical representations of this character, like he’s a low life drug addict, I wanted to go deeper in terms of why he’s turned out like this. Could he have had abuse as a child which led to future actions? Did he have a former realtionship and that in some way effected him? I wanted to asks these questions to find the real man behind his broken exterior.”

We begin the film in a dull room in which a therapy session seems to be taking place. Gloomy, distraught figures sat in a circle with expressions filled of malice as they reluctantly listen to the female therapist (played by Alison Dures). A cold and unwelcomed tone fills this first scene with questions as to what level of crimes these men have potentially comitted to be in this sitaution. We then move on to the next scene which keeps the cold and eery tone evident in the first scene. A suspicious character leans against a fence, wearing a cap which hides his face from the warm streetlight glaring down at him, we are filled with suspense as to what’s going to happen next. We then see the protagonist (Rory Wilton) come into shot. His slow and unceremonious walk, a normaility it seems as he goes over to this man. We then see Anthony take ake-out a wedge of cash, in exchange for a small bag of cocaine. We begin to see the true man behind his hidden shell. As he begins to walk off into the cold, dark night, we begin to understand how this addiction is a never ending cycle, almost a vicious circle which is consumed in.

A quick-cut brings us to Anthony walking into his apartment. At first glance we can see that his aprtment isn’t of the conventional one of a typical drug addict. It isquite the opposite. It looks like a nice family home, which may be significant to past events which have accured for him to be in this sitaution. As Anthony is taking of his jumper, we cut to a black and white shot of him dropping the bag of cocaine on his clean, black coffeet-table.

 This is a very stylistic choice to make and I feel it works tremendously well. It has a Christopher Nolan ‘Memento’ type of feel to it, making it more suspenfiul by the second. Another black and white shot shows Anthony pouring what seems to be an alcoholic beverage into a pretty shitty glass. What do we expect? We then come back into ‘real-time’ and we see our protagonist vigouriously trying to get into his precious bag of goods. The bag evidentely tears open, leaving a pile of coke laying on his (now not so clean) coffee-table.. Anthony then pulls out a chef’s knife from underneath a magazine and
begins to cut a line out of the heap of coke on the table. As he begins to cut a line of coke with the knife, the tension begins to rise. Watching a ‘behind the scenes’ view of a drug addict and what truly goes on in their world. He then takes his frist line of coke. The beginning of a nightmare which will never go away. As Anthony begins to line up another hit of coke, however he is stopped by the reverberate sound of his phone, and of course, his wife on the other end. Lucy (Anthony’s wife) explains that their daughter is coming over (which Anthony obviously forgot) and that there approximately two minutes away. In the words of Anthony as he looks down the lens of the camera, “fuck”. He begins to quickly wipe the iniquitous coke off of the coffee table before his ‘daughter’ gets to his house. As Anthony moronically trys to clear away his sins, pouring the rest of the coke reluctantly into the glass of whiskey. The doorbell rings. A slow look towards the door signifys his overwrought, distressed mood as he contemplates what to do next.


Anthony, in an adagio fashion, begins to walk towards the door. He opens the door to a tempermental looking Jessica (played by Beccy-Mead Stuchbury). Anthony (still in a pertubed state) walks towards the sofa and sits next to Jessica. A tense and uncomfortable silence fills the room. Anthony finally breaks the silence, asking Jessica mindless questions which he no doubt forget by his next hit. Anthony then leaves the room. The glass of whiskey still lays heinously on the table. Jessica then downs the whole glass. Her expression begins to change as the drugs begin to infuse into he innocent body. Her body, dead and silent like the doldrums of the ocean. As Anthony sits their in disarray, his phone again begins to ring. It’s his wife saying she’s coming over with homework their daughter forgot. Trepidation fills his guilty face. Lucy then comes in the house, and flicks on the light as she says’ “Why’s is it so dark in here?”.