Vague Visages’ The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane review contains minor spoilers. Helena Coan’s 2023 documentary features Detective Inspector Scott Beard. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews, along with cast/character summaries, streaming guides and complete soundtrack song listings.

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Twenty years ago, my mother worked as the victim witness coordinator for the U.S. State Attorney’s office in Fargo, North Dakota. She developed a lasting bond with the family of Dru Sjodin, a 22-year-old college student from Pequot Lakes, Minnesota who was beaten, sexually assaulted and murdered by a repeat offender. Over time, I’ve witnessed how the case not only impacted the Sjodin family, but also how it affected the lives of everyone involved with the prosecution, including my mother. After viewing the heart-breaking and absolutely terrifying documentary The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane, I was reminded of the spiral effect that haunts criminal investigators, their collaborators and the surviving family members of murder victims. 

The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane examines the 2018 death of a 21-year-old British backpacker. Director Helena Coan pairs social media footage with exceptional editing, courtesy of Chiara Armentano and Andrew Hulme, resulting in much more than Dateline-like storytelling. As Grace begins the second leg of a year-long traveling adventure in Auckland, New Zealand, she meets a man through Tinder, and ultimately agrees to a date at the Sky Tower while anticipating her 22nd birthday the following day. When Grace doesn’t respond to text messages in the morning, local investigators question her soft-spoken and well-dressed Tinder date, Jesse Shane Kempson. The suspect initially claims that he parted ways with Grace on the evening in question and woke up in a drunken stupor the following day, but a detective identifies a series of lies after Kempson gets identified on surveillance footage with a large suitcase.  

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An early review of The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane states that the documentary “doesn’t care” about the subject, and that Coan exploits the murder for “pure shock and horror.” I absolutely disagree. Part of the film’s effectiveness lies in the iceberg-style storytelling, which respects the audience’s intelligence by showing and addressing crime scene evidence without detailing the grisly specifics. Sure, The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane is indeed a “murder mystery,” but it’s quite clear early on that Kempson committed a crime, and so the main questions become “Why?” and “How?”

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The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane doesn’t ignore the subject’s humanity whatsoever, but rather celebrates her personality and travel ambitions through extensive insert footage of her social media posts and text messages. In fact, Coan and her editors show great care with their approach, especially when court room footage reveals a horrific scenario in Kempson’s hotel room that’s hard to fathom. This particular sequence will anger and frustrate viewers, especially those who pay close attention to brief show-and-tell moments, rather than focusing their gaze on the suspect and the impressive amount of surveillance footage.

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Another thing that stands out in The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane is New Zealand culture. Various law enforcement figures break down on camera while discussing the subject and their country, with one person even apologizing for the entirety of New Zealand. If Dateline holds the audience’s hand through each episode — and I mean that in the best way possible — The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane points a finger in different directions without deconstructing the horrific specifics. Does Coan need to spend five or 10 minutes explaining blood stains and Luminol forensic technology? Does she need to detail what Grace endured during the last five to 10 minutes of her life? No… not when the storytelling and editing paints a clear picture. The audience is better off not knowing the specifics. And viewers are certainly better off not knowing the explicit details of what happened to Grace immediately after her death. The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane doesn’t ignore the victim… not at all. But it is indeed important to shift the attention to Kempson at times, in order to better understand his psychology and methods, which in turn will hopefully help law enforcement profilers prevent similar crimes in the future.

The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane released theatrically and digitally on March 29, 2024 via Brainstorm Media.

Q.V. Hough (@QVHough) is Vague Visages’ founding editor.

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