LITTLE BLUE LIES

A lovelorn teen messes with the mob in order to save his blue-collar girlfriend in this unusual comedy of social class.

Upper-class Oliver is devastated when his beloved Junie Blue breaks off their relationship after high school graduation. But that doesn’t stop him from trying to intervene when he hears that Junie may be in possession of a winning lottery ticket that is being sought by the local mob boss. Since their relationship was built on the outrageous lies they used to tell each other, Oliver can’t figure out if Junie is telling the truth about not having the ticket. So he uses his family’s wealth and power to hatch a plan to take the mob heat off Junie and, he hopes, win her back in the process. But self-sufficient Junie has plans of her own, and Oliver discovers that she’s not the only one who’s been lying to him. Though secondary characters that aren’t integral to the story sometimes sidetrack the plot, Lynch’s dialogue is consistently funny and sharp. Inventive descriptions—“The sun is just starting to work an orange cigarette burn through the gray fabric of the clouds”—set off the long riffs of humorous banter nicely.

A worthwhile romp, if not quite a jackpot.