In Atonement, Briony Tallis gives us an ending that we later learn didn’t really happen: she tells us that two characters happily end up married when actually they do not (so, yes, she too lies to us).
Let’s look at two films that offer a more compelling form of unreliability: Atonement and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. And that arbitrariness translates to gimmicky. This makes his unreliability as a narrator come off as arbitrary, rather than natural. One could argue he lied to himself as a way of coping with the loss, but the film has a hard time sticking the landing. As the audience understands that Greg is telling this story from the future, they are naturally prone to believe him. Greg, the protagonist, assures the audience multiple times that the cancer-stricken girl he befriends, Rachel, isn’t going to die at the end of the story. In an otherwise well-made film, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl resorts to gimmicks by employing a narrator that compromises his credibility in a cheap and disappointing way. Atonement & The Perks of Being a Wallflower But where do other, less successful films go wrong? Resorting to Gimmicks Some films unleash their unreliable narrators to masterful effect – Rashomon, The Usual Suspects, and Fight Club, to name a few.
Suspense, misdirection, manipulation – these are all things that an unreliable narrator can provide, leadings to twists and turns and, if done right, a shock of an ending an audience won't see coming. It’s the perfect tool to entertain an audience. The reason it can work so well in film, however, has less to do with its relatability and more to do with drama. When unleashed properly, the unreliable narrator is one of the most effective devices in storytelling.It’s a device that will never go out of style because it gets at the heart of human nature: aren’t we all unreliable narrators in some shape or form? Subjectivity and bias – and even our own mental and emotional health – will always paint the way we, in real life, will tell a story. A tricky figure whose credibility as an audience guide is seriously undermined - usually in service of a good twist.
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