The story of this movie is classical Hitchcock stuff. It tells about fear, suspicion, innocence, betrayed trust and delivers a considerable amount of suspense. It is based on real events and is basically a movie about the invasion of privacy and its devastating effects – thanks to the excellent performances of all the actors a rewarding experience, but one that left me feeling sad and uncomfortable.The question of loyalty looms large over the whole situation. So, your neighbors who happen to be your best friends, are suspected of being spies. But those who want you to believe that are very secretive about it, giving away only shreds of information, leaving you more or less in the dark. Is the neighbors' friendship a total fake, merely a tactical gimmick? Are they ignorant about all that is going on and maybe just victims? You can't talk about it with your friends - which basically is what friends are for - you must lie to them, faking the "usual ignorance". No wonder that the concerned family get to the brink of insanity, especially because - as if this were not enough - they have to deal with permanent house-guests who more or less take over the dwelling, spying on the neighborhood for some not really clear reason – creating an all around surreal situation. Remains the question: Whom can you trust? You have to trust somebody.It does this movie great credit that it distributes the pack of lies evenly, not demonizing anybody. There is nothing „bad" about the neighbors who are revealed in the end as hardboiled spies and did what they did because of their political convictions. They are perfectly civil and likable, up to their arrest which comes through as a general defeat for everybody concerned in the immediate surroundings. The effects on the family are truly devastating, and that is hard to take – even if in all probability there wouldn't have been more sensible ways to deal with the situation successfully. So probably they belong to the anonymous victims of the Cold War to whom, as far as I know, nobody ever erected a monument.The only thing I regret about Pack of Lies is the stylistic approach, which is flat and undramatic and makes it almost a documentary in appearance. In my opinion, the surrealistic elements of the story and the moral turmoils the family has to go through would have justified a slightly more "cinematic" approach to the issue. After all, the whole situation is really far from normal. Or so I hope.

"Pack of Lies" is a very interesting drama which is aptly named. MI5 agents, led by Alan Bates as "Stuart," skillfully manipulate a well-intentioned British family into believing that they are merely police on a routine investigation who need to use their home in the London suburbs "just for the weekend" in order to surveil a suspect who has been tracked into their neighborhood. As it becomes clearer what is really going on and what is at stake, the agents practically take over the house, the British couple are encouraged to lie to their teenage daughter about the unseemly details they have learned, and then the husband must lie to his increasingly distraught wife in order to spare her the trauma of the final ugly truth. Everyone must deceive the family's friendly neighbors by pretending that nothing at all is amiss, for it turns out that they are Soviet spies who have been lying their heads off to maintain their cover. In the end, as British agents close in for the inevitable arrest, Ellen Burstyn, as Barb, is subsumed in guilt, completely torn between her loyalty to her best friend, Helen (Teri Garr), while at the same time feeling totally gullible and cruelly betrayed by her. This is a great TV movie with excellent performances all around, but especially from Alan Bates, Teri Garr, and Ellen Burstyn. In fact, the latter is so convincing in her interpretation that at certain key moments it almost defies description.The interesting thing, of course, is that this effective movie is based on a true story, as was pointed out in another's comments. "Helen and Peter" seemed so affable and caring but were in fact part of the infamous atomic spy ring that gathered American nuclear secrets after WWII and transmitted them to the Soviets. They escaped the US when the Rosenbergs and others were arrested, only to surface in London some time later under assumed names.

The story of "Pack of Lies" relates to husband and wife Bill and Ruth Search, and their daughter Gay (who is now a well-known TV and newspaper journalist in the UK). The Searches lived across the road from Peter and Helen Kroger, who had rented a bungalow at 45 Cranley Drive in Ruislip, England.When they were arrested in January 1961, it was revealed that the Krogers weren't who they appeared to be - they were actually Morris and Lona Cohen, a pair of spies, who worked with fellow spy Gordon Lonsdale in the 1950's and 1960s, photographing and encoding as microdots various pieces of material which they then sent to their colleagues in Russia."Pack of Lies" is the story of the tragic effect that Soviet spy Lona Cohen had on an innocent lady who thought she'd found a friend.

***SLIGHT SPOILERS*** This movie is about two Families who are close friends and they do everything together. They go to art class, shopping and they visit each other. They have such a bond with each other, they're lives are wrapped up in this friendship--there's nothing that can break up this friendship.......or is there??????Underneath the apparent innocence of Helen(Terri Garr)and her husband Peter is a dirty secret-they are both Russian spies. One day, a British agent named Stewart(Alan Bates)pays them a visit. He tells them that they are looking for a man who has been seen in the neighborhood by the name of Powell. Stewart Asks them to corporate with them-so he can keep an eye on the neighborhood from their upstairs bedroom window. If that was all there was to it-then it's not too bad....but it goes from bad to worse.When Powell is seen leaving Helen & Peter's, the chain of events that follows is the beginning of a fall-from which there was no getting up from. Barbara(Ellen Burstyn) and her husband are asked by British agents to allow them to spy on Helen & peter-24 hours a day. A 24 hour watch as they call it. And of course, they had to maintain secrecy. This means a pack of lies-not only on the part of Helen & Peter-but Barbara had to lie too-to maintain secrecy. They could not under any circistances let Helen & Peter know what is going on.I know how easy it is to feel for Barbara & her husband, after all they were lied to & been betrayed by their best friends. There's another issue here-that is national security. Helen & Peter are guilty of passing classified information to the Russians-this constitutes espionage-and It is against the law. And it's very dangerous. They violated the law-so they go to prison.It's a shame, isn't? to have best friends-who are spies?