The Color of Lies is another of Claude Chabrol’s ambiguous explorations of the moral rot at the heart of a rural community.

A deep roster of interesting characters provides this one with its backbone.

At turns droll and satirical, it isn't ultimately one of the auteur's strongest skewering of the idly privileged, but it is a decent procedural populated by enough familiar faces to make its less engaging stretches watchable.

Chabrol could do the traditional murder mystery and detective procedural as well as anyone but this is something else, a low-key study in suspicion, mistrust and small-town gossip where the details are suggested more than stated.