British screen legends Helen Mirren and Sir Ian McKellen go head to head in The Good Liar, playing this Thursday, Feb. 27 at BUFS.

Con man Roy meets retired Oxford professor Betty through an online dating service. By the end of their first dinner date, they have both confessed that they lied in their profiles, yet they begin a companionship that progresses too quickly for the liking of Betty’s grandson, Stephen. Roy delights in the sheer thrill of the game when it comes to fleecing his marks, but we soon learn that he doesn’t flinch from more serious crimes, either. Luckily, Betty is not as naïve as she first appears.

“Through it all… Mirren and McKellen never waver,” says Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times. “Smooth at being smooth, their conviction always convinces us, and their ability to register multiple subtle changes of emotion is consistently impressive. They are, in the final analysis, actors playing actors pretending not to be actors, and that is something to see.”

Based on Nicholas Searle’s bestselling novel, The Good Liar marks the first time that the 80-year-old McKellen and 74-year-old Mirren have appeared together in a film.

Tickets for all BUFS shows are available at the Film House in the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre (PAC) on the evening of screenings. General admission is $9.50 or $7 for Film House members, plus tax. Free BUFS memberships are also available on screening nights.

Visit the BUFS web page for this season’s selection, with additional titles being added to the calendar as they are confirmed. Look for the red B that indicates a BUFS-hosted screening.

For more than 40 years, BUFS has been bringing the best in independent and art house cinema to the Niagara region. The society is supported by the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Brock.