Villainess Review: Julia Byron-Kim (Dangerous Lies)

I remember learning about this movie three years ago, and two simple words hooked me: Camila Mendes. There's a rule I have: if someone from Riverdale has something out, I watch it. Camila Mendes is amazing on that show as Veronica Lodge, I think she's one of the true top stars on that show. So because of this, in 2020, I dove right in to this Netflix film, Dangerous Lies, which starred Mendes as Katie Franklin, a waitress who is married to Adam Kuttner, who saves Katie's diner from being robbed at gunpoint. Four months pass, and Katie is suddenly working as a caretaker for elderly Leonard Wellesley, and as for Adam, he ends up hired as Leonard's gardener after Katie vents to Leonard about their money problems.

Katie developed a close bond with Leonard, who suspects that someone's inside his house, and she also finds herself visited by Mickey Hayden, a real estate agent looking to buy Leonard's house. She also received quite a surprising payday from Leonard: a $7000 check! Katie has reservations about taking such a large amount, but Adam talks her into keeping the check in order to pay their bills, with a promise to pay the remainder back to Leonard. Sadly, the following day sees Katie finding Leonard deceased at his house.

Things escalate from there, as Katie finds herself encountered by Detective Chesler, who has her suspicions about Leonard's death. Katie and Adam also find a vast amount of money at the house--$100K to be exact, as well as a collection of diamonds, and it's during his funeral proceedings that Katie and Adam meet Leonard's lawyer, Julia Byron-Kim, who delivers a surprising bit of news: Leonard left everything to Katie. As for the money, that's being place in a safe deposit box, but the couple are also dealing with Hayden following them. And there's more--Katie and Adam find signed and uncashed checks written out to Ethan Doyle, who was revealed to be Leonard's last gardener before Adam was hired, and they also find Ethan's body. Yikes!

After learning about Katie tracking Leonard's medications from George Calvern, who later sneaks back in the house and ends up falling down the stairs to his death, Chesler voices her suspicions about Adam to Katie, using the fact that the robber at the diner was actually the custodian at Adam's school. Katie becomes suspicious herself and voiced her concerns to Julia, who accompanied Katie to the deposit box, which is empty. Katie's return to Adam sees quite a few revelations. For one, Mickey Hayden's no real estate agent; rather, he's a criminal. Hayden's crime: robbing a jewelry store of $3 million in diamonds, and as for Ethan, he was Hayden's partner. There was also an accomplice, but while they don't have that part figured out yet, they do know that Hayden was the one who shot Ethan to death.

Hayden later appears and holds Katie at gunpoint, leading to a gun battle between himself and Adam, which ends with both of them dead. After Adam mentioned "the garden" regarding the diamonds, Julia arrived and asked Katie about the diamonds' location, with Katie revealing everything she knew about Hayden, including the fact that he was the one who killed Leonard with a lethal overdose. She also identified Hayden as Ethan's killer, and in response, Julia insults Hayden's intelligence, as well as the fact that Hayden would kill for $3 million in diamonds.

One problem: Katie never told Julia how much those diamonds were.

So Julia was the hidden accomplice all along; having represented Hayden when she was a public defender. She managed to plead Hayden down to a two-year sentence, and they made a deal to get the diamonds together, while revealing that she didn't think Hayden would become so impatient as to resort to killing Leonard. As for the will, it was fake, with Julia stating that Leonard would have given Katie the house anyway before once again demanding the diamonds. Julia grabbed Hayden's gun prior to making her villainous confession, and later pointed it towards Katie when she refused to reveal the diamonds' location. At that moment, Chesler arrives, with Julia introducing herself as Katie's lawyer, all while having a gun right at Katie's back. Julia makes a desperate attempt to kill Chesler, who fires her own gun at the villainess--two shots was all it took to take her down.

Four months pass, and Katie's pregnant with Adam's baby. The diamonds are discussed, with Chesler stating that the police never found them, but as we see in the final moments, they were right were Adam said they were in his final words: in the garden.

Dangerous Lies was released on Netflix on April 30, 2020, and the film's stellar cast also included (among many actors) the immensely talented Jamie Chung as the evil Julia Byron-Kim. Julia's near eleventh hour heel turn was so awesome, mainly because I had wanted Jamie Chung to play a villainess for a long time, and she didn't disappoint with this film. Julia was quite devious, very conniving, opportunistic, and greedy, and we saw all of those traits in her not-so-surprising reveal. I really mean that last part; I had Julia pegged quite early. I mean, she pops up during Leonard's funeral, and the first thing she does is inform Katie that Leonard left her everything? Yeah, that's hella fishy.

Jamie Chung was amazing in this; all of her scenes with Mendes were well done, but her shining moment was Julia's reveal following her slip of the tongue. In that regard, Chung portrayed Julia's treachery and corrupt nature to perfection--seriously, she should play villainesses more often. Chung's start came as a cast member on MTV's The Real World in 2004, and it has led to a big time acting career, appearing in films such as I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and Sorority Row, and on TV shows such as Gotham and Dexter: New Blood. Chung also voiced Go Go in the Disney film, Big Hero 6, and reprised the role on the animated series based on the film.

One more thing:

I said this after watching this movie the first time, and I'll say it here: we need a sequel. The film ended with the revelation that Katie had the diamonds hidden in the garden all this time, and that can open the door for a sequel. Of course, all of the film's villains are dead, so we have to create a new one, and I have the perfect one: Detective Chesler herself. Sasha Alexander, the latter half of Rizzoli & Isles, played Chesler in this film, which saw Chesler as a dogged detective who was bent on getting answers regarding Leonard's death, as well as take down any criminals involved. If Netflix is gracious enough to give us a sequel, we could see Chesler serve as the big bad villainess, with Chesler's heel turn being motivated by an obsession with finding the diamonds. A sequel could turn Chesler from a dedicated detective to a corrupt villainess, and while this film saw Chesler determined to protect and help Katie, a potential sequel could see Katie stalked and threatened by an evil and deranged Chesler, who would even kill to get what she wanted. Just an idea; here's hoping Netflix does this.

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Check out Julia Byron-Kim's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!