Secrets & Lies

There is a great exuberance of life in Secrets & Lies, winner of the Palme D'Or and best actress (Blethyn) at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival--not Zorba-type life but the little battles fought and won every day. Leigh's honest interpretation of daily life is usually found only on the stage. Secrets & Lies is more realistic than a stage production, however, especially when Leigh shows us uninterrupted scenes. Critic David Denby states that Leigh has "made an Ingmar Bergman film without an instant of heaviness or pretension." If that sounds like your cup of tea, see Secrets & Lies. --Doug Thomas

Tha acting is simply awesome. No other words to put it.Everyone from Brenda Blethyn to Timothy Spall to Marianna Jean Baptiste, to Claire Rushbrook, all take turns stealing scenes in performances that are so natural and on point that at times, it doesn't even feel like they're acting. This is true acting that cuts straight to the heart.The script is wonderful in that it provides so many little details that one wouldn't think to include in a movie. Just the smallest things which somehow bring the characters to life.

A wonderful film that is never going to get any acclaim because this is all about the actors.No special effects or halle berry sex scenes. No way-this is an actor's film.And they steal the show.If you have taste in REAL cinema, do not miss this gem of a movie.IT IS SIMPLY WONDERFUL.


On How Life Is   February 5, 2004
gonn1000 (Portugal)
This superbly acted and written drama is certainly one of the best british movies of the 90`s, dealing with human feelings and relationhips in an unique, realistic and powerful way. Like the best british movies out there, it wisely combines drama and comedy, creating a meaningful portrayal of life.

The story focuses a young black woman`s (Marianne Jean-Baptiste)quest to find her real mother who abandoned her as a child (Brenda Blethyn). Problem is, her mother`s life is currently a mess and that new element ends up generating some problems, conflicts and tensions in the family.

Mike Leigh`s direction offers time and room for his actors to develop the characters, creating three-dimensional individuals who seem real everyday people. The scenes are very well crafted, with close attention to detail and strong, credible dialogue. The performances are all terrific and natural, and the story flows well although the pace is a bit slow at times. It`s certainly one of the most interesting movies about family ties and the need of belonging somewhere, also focusing the differences and personality flaws that keep people away from each other.

At times sad and moving, in other moments cheerful and uplifting, "Secrets & Lies" presents the necessary but at times difficult experience of family reunion in a realistic way.
A worthwile, poignant drama with much to recommend.


One Lie I Wish Filmakers Would Stop Telling   January 16, 2004
MopedLad (los angeles)
I would be dishonest if I did not compliment Leigh and his cast on such beautifully acted roles interwoven in such a sweetly told story, but why on Earth do movie makers persist in using actors who so very obviously have two black parents to portray mixed race people? Jean-Baptiste's Hortense is superbly explored and bought to life, but as a parent of mixed race children I found it difficult to suspend disbelief in being asked to accept that she had a white mother (a sentiment echoed by many in the mixed race community). A trivial criticism most of you will cry, but this type of miscasting does a disservice to reality and serves only to propagate hypodescent myths regarding mixed race people.


Powerful emotional experience   October 15, 2003
Eddie Konczal
This film is possibly the most emotionally powerful film I have ever seen. I have never cared more for a group of characters as I did for those in "Secrets and Lies." Director/writer Mike Leigh is famous for giving his actors the outlines of their characters and having them improvise most of their lines. This technique succeeds brilliantly here - you feel as if you're a part of these people's lives. All the actors turn in wonderful performances - Brenda Blethyn as the long-suffering poor single English mother, Marianne Jean Baptiste as a young black girl in search of her natural parents, Claire Rushbrook as Blethyn's rebellious daughter, and Phyllis Logan as Blethyn's well-to-do yet frustrated sister in law. At the center of it all is a monumentally understated performance by Timothy Spall, who as Blethyn's brother attempts to hold everyone's lives together as they face the pain of their ordinary existence. A truly moving film that is one of the best ever.


Leigh's greatest?   August 26, 2003
www.DavidLRattigan.com (United Kingdom)
Sit back and savour the genius of the master storyteller, Mike Leigh. In Secrets and Lies, Leigh draws incredible, multi-dimensional performances out of a talented cast headed by Brenda Blethyn and Timothy Spall; quite the finest performances I have seen in a Leigh film.

There is no need for lengthy analysis here. As usual, the director does not aspire to grandeur, but simply presents his characters with utter sincerity and conviction, and allowing us to travel with them on their journies. The tension culminates in a brilliantly acted climax and a touching, low-key final scene reminiscent of that of his earlier, and inferior, Life is Sweet.