Lying 2006

Megan, Chloë Sevigny, an heiress, invites Linda, Maya Goldsmith, from her yoga class, and Grace, Jena Malone, and Hella, Halley Wegryn Gross, two interns from her museum job, to spend a weekend at her expansive country home in upstate New York. The group arrives together, and Megan prepares a meal which they eat outside at a picnic table. She notes that the phone lines are down, effectively cutting them off from the outside world for the weekend. Grace peppers Megan with probing questions during dinner, focusing on Megan’s deceased parents from whom she inherited the house, while Hella gently chides her for being confrontational. Megan gifts each woman a crystal garden she has prepared in a jar, setting a quiet, almost ritual tone for their secluded stay.

That night, the four women wander the woods, and a tense moment arises when Henry, Megan’s brother, arrives unannounced, startling them. The next morning, Megan encounters a young boy in the woods who says he is lost and explains that he was camping with his family, sharing a hopeful want to join the army someday. Meanwhile, Sarah, the neighbor who borders Megan’s property, watches from her kitchen, then steps outside to wave flags in the air to catch their attention, though they don’t notice. The group passes the time with a game of croquet, and Megan mentions that Henry is hard at work on a novel, while Linda recalls that he was once in a band, revealing cracks in Megan’s stories. Later, Megan catches Hella attempting to use the phone, hinting at the fragile control Megan maintains over the weekend.

That night, after the wine flows freely, a mysterious chorus of a woman’s singing travels through the house, prompting the women to chase the source in a kind of eerie game. When Megan follows the sound to the fireplace, the voice abruptly vanishes. The next morning, they stage a video art project outdoors, a collaborative, experimental moment that Sarah observes before Megan ushers her away. Megan insists that Sarah’s concerns aren’t pressing, explains there will be no morning visit from her parents, and invites Sarah to join breakfast the next day.

Grace, ever curious, snoops around and discovers Megan’s passport tucked away. During dinner, the conversation shifts to Sarah, and Megan asserts that she purchased the plot of land next to Sarah’s property and had the old house rebuilt. Grace questions the plausibility of Megan’s claims, noting the house’s apparent age. Megan’s tall tales intensify when she claims that locusts migrate to the Arctic each year, a claim Grace challenges. More troubling, Grace later reveals to Hella and Linda a cache of bills and papers she found in a drawer, which suggests Megan has been lying about owning the house.

The four women depart in the morning, leaving Megan alone with Sarah. Sarah visits the kitchen breakfast area and learns that the other women have already left for the city. She then tells Megan that a young boy, who had gone missing while camping nearby with his family, was found, claiming he had seen a woman who refused to help him; authorities describe the incident as a hallucination. Megan remains tight-lipped about any encounter with the boy, and the two finally head back inside to begin breakfast, leaving the weekend’s unsettling questions lingering in the air.