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July 7, 2023

At the Movies: ‘The Lesson' provides a spicy literary thriller

By LINDSEY BAHR
AP Film Writer

The egos are as vast and thorny as the gardens on the lush estate of a prominent author in “ The Lesson,” an entertaining and erudite chamber piece about a master, a tutor and a family after loss.

This is a story that, in different hands, could have easily turned maudlin or melodramatic, but director Alice Troughton, writer Alex MacKeith and composer Isobel Waller-Bridge opted instead for wry lightness within the construct of a slow-burn thriller. It's as though “The Lesson,” and everyone involved, is winking at the audience through the serious material that lingers, intentionally, on the fine line between pretentious and provocative.


 
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