Intimate and Colorful, Miriam Lies is an adolescent drama with an intense focus on its subject, Miriam (Dulce Rodriguez). Set in the Dominican Republic, the story begins a few weeks out from Miriam’s quinceanera. During the preparations, Miriam tells a small lie to her friends and family: She’s met a boy online named Jean-Louis, a potential suitor and guest of honor at her 15th birthday. Her friends and family assume he is a white European boy, perhaps the son of the new French ambassador. While she never states this aloud, Miriam never corrects her mother or friends.
We come to learn that Miriam struggles with gender, age, and race by watching her experience the actions and conversations of her friends and family. Her father, now divorced, is a black man and her mother is white. While naïve, she sees that part of their problem relates to race and, after some time, finds that her mother’s family didn’t want to accept a black man into the family. While the story itself is subtle and uncomplicated in many ways, it is intriguing to watch a young bi-racial woman navigate the intersections of her gender, race, and privilege.
The movie has an unwavering gaze on Miriam. Over 90% of the film is her face, her subtle reactions and tamped-down feelings on display as her family talks about her and others like her. Her mother’s rich friends argue with ‘the help’ and seek to make sure “they don’t feel like they have privileges.” These characters are black and unnamed, often seen only in the background. We see Miriam pick up on this and issues of women, sexuality, and finance. We see her private worry, her stifled rage and confusion, and her hope that no one finds out she’s lying about Jean-Louis.
While I commend the decision to focus on Miriam and the delicate, private nature of adolescence, I do think the unending focus on Miriam’s face is a weakness of this film. We’re never properly introduced to Miriam’s family or friends beyond their out-of-shot lines and the setting is devastatingly underexplored. Beyond this issue, this movie is an outstanding drama and an intimate exploration of the complex inner world of a bi-racial teenager. Miriam Lies is highly recommended for coming of age film collections in public libraries. Editor’s Choice.
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