movie the lesson

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A young author takes a tutoring position at the estate of a legendary writer. A young author takes a tutoring position at the estate of a legendary writer. A young author takes a tutoring position at the estate of a legendary writer.

Alice Troughton
Alex MacKeith
Richard E. Grant
Julie Delpy
Daryl McCormack
24 User reviews
54 Critic reviews
62 Metascore
2 nominations

J.M. Sinclair

Hélène Sinclair

Liam Somers

Bertie Sinclair

Interviewer
Felix Sinclair
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Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia The rodents of unusual size that feature in the film are called coypu
Goofs Liam rips up the manuscript of his novel and throws the pages in the lake, where they float on the surface. In the next scene at the lake, there are no traces of the pages on the water's surface. Given the number of pages it's likely that at least some of the manuscript would still be floating in the water.

User reviews 24

RightOnDaddio
Jul 9, 2023
How long is The Lesson? Powered by Alexa
September 22, 2023 (United Kingdom)
United Kingdom
myTV SUPER (Hong Kong)
Poison Chef
Egoli Tossell Pictures
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 43 minutes

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‘The Lesson’ Review: Carefully Taut

A tense standoff between two writers kindles familial fireworks in this wittily self-aware melodrama.

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At a dinner table, a man leans against a chair confronting a sullen, seated boy as a woman looks on. Another man lurks in the background.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

No one is quite what they seem in “The Lesson,” Alice Troughton’s winking literary mystery whose languid summer setting — a swanky estate in the English countryside — hides coldly destructive secrets.

The seemingly innocent arrival of Liam ( Daryl McCormack ), a hunky recent graduate hired as a live-in tutor to the son of the celebrated author J.M. Sinclair (Richard E. Grant), almost immediately causes ripples in the family’s strained dynamic.

Sinclair, a pompous control freak, is struggling to finish a novel so long delayed that his fans fear he has retired. His son, Bertie (Stephen McMillan), is smart and snotty, jaggedly rebuffing Liam’s patient attempts to coach him to take the entrance exams for Oxford University. (Honestly, he should fit right in.) Then there’s Sinclair’s wife, Hélène (Julie Delpy), an art curator so coolly, seductively enigmatic that at least one of Liam’s assignments is immediately predictable.

Unfolding with a tonic intelligence and a slow accretion of menace, Alex MacKeith’s screenplay is smoothly in sync with the specific skills of each performer. Grant is magnificent as a cruel, past-his-prime genius burdened by terrible guilt over an earlier family tragedy, and Delpy — well, can any actor express so much with a single, withering look? Or persuade us that experiencing cunnilingus is no more exciting than having a pedicure?

Yet in an atmosphere as chilly as the lake that lurks on the property, it is Liam — played by McCormack with open-faced guile — who intrigues. Drinking heavily and scribbling in a notebook when everyone’s asleep, spying on the family while concealing his long obsession with Sinclair, Liam gains a trust he doesn’t deserve. In this den of deceit and desperation, it’s never quite clear who is manipulating whom.

The Lesson Rated R for Delpy en déshabillé and Grant on his knees. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. In theaters.

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film still featuring Daryl McCormack and Richard E Grant in The Lesson

The Lesson review – amusing but contrived literary thriller about family tragedy and vengeful ambition

A charismatic young tutor comes to help a tragedy-stuck family in a bookish drama that’s fun and smart, but not entirely convincing

H ere is a brittle and contrived but rather elegant Brit thriller about literary paranoia from debut feature screenwriter Alex MacKeith and director Alice Troughton, herself a cinema first-timer having had much acclaim working on TV. The upscale and sophisticated mise-en-scène is rather French; Julie Delpy has a role here and looks quite at home.

Richard E Grant plays JM Sinclair, a bestselling, sharp-tongued author who gives roguish interviews repeating the old maxim that good artists borrow but great ones steal. He is married to art collector Hélène (Delpy) and they live in a handsome country estate with extensive grounds and a lake. But Sinclair, usually so prolific, has retreated to a haunted creative silence following the tragic death of his elder son; the parents are now concerned with moody and mercurial younger boy Bertie (Stephen McMillan) who needs to be coached to get a place at Oxford to read English.

And so they engage a live-in tutor to give lessons: this is Liam (Daryl McCormack), whose charm engages his employers. Liam finds himself having dinner with the family wearing borrowed clothes belonging to the dead son. But more painfully still, Liam admires Sinclair because he is a would-be author himself, and tremulously shows him his first novel in manuscript – with calamitous results.

I enjoyed the “lesson” scenes here, especially when Liam has to provide a reading list. (My reading list for this film would be: John Colapinto’s About the Author , Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot, Rebecca F Kuang’s Yellowface and James Hadley Chase’s Eve.) As for McCormack, he has the same screen presence he showed playing opposite Emma Thompson in the comedy Good Luck to You, Leo Grande – a not dissimilar role, in fact. Yet here he has to be angry, vengeful and infatuated, and the role certainly tests his emotional range pretty severely. Well, it’s hard not to be upstaged when matched with Richard E Grant in full flight. An amusing essay in conceit and revenge.