Secrets & Lies (1996)

It's difficult not to be overwhelmed by the emotional upheaval of a character like Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) throughout the story. There aren't many moments when she's in a rational state of calm, instead she's reacting hysterically to all the dysfunctional family theatrics surrounding her. One has to admit though, learning that she's the white mother of a black daughter can be somewhat unnerving once it's ultimately revealed. The story took a step in the direction of how something like that could be but dropped the ball without clarifying the point. As the viewer we don't know and can only speculate. Whether Cynthia carried on with a black man after (other) daughter Roxanne's (Claire Rushbrook) absent father hit the road, or if she was assaulted and raped, one must come to your own conclusion. The shocking realization in Cynthia's mind is not made aware to the viewer.It might have helped the story if any of the principal players had an appealing look and personality, but then again, when dealing with real life, this is what one often winds up with. I had a tendency to keep my eye on background characters like Jane (Elizabeth Berrington) and Paul (Lee Ross) when things reached critical mass, and they wound up simply there with virtually no visual response. Personally, I would have been mortified and looking for a quick exit. The scene with Stuart (Ron Cook) seems rather odd now in retrospect since it didn't connect with anything else going on, except perhaps to convey class differences in the midst of a story dealing with a potential racial issue. When all was said and done, it appeared that the family dynamic resolved itself rather quickly, which for the sake of the film was necessary but hardly seemed realistic. It's difficult to imagine the trauma induced by suddenly becoming a bi-racial family would have been alleviated in such a short time span, but at least it ended with everyone still breathing. I'd be on the fence on recommending this one because it's not comfortable to watch, and if one is in a mood for entertainment, this will take you in a different direction.

Good morning,I'm here to tell you about "Secrets and Lies", a movie by Mike Leigh.I must give credits to him because he worked without a script but to me this film is wack.It's about a dull family story with bad actors like the girl who plays Cynthia.She overplays her role, she is crying during the whole movie and her voice is just irritating.There were many attempts to make the audience laugh but it was a failure, humor is too light.Thank Lord I had the mental to stay in the cinema for two hours to watch that and I almost fainted when I remembered that I had paid four euros for that.I gave this movie three stars just because of actor's improvisation, otherwise I would have put only one star, it was very annoying and Timothy Spall acted like he doesn't care when we met him, he was emotionless.

Life isn't perfect, people aren't perfect either, they are sometimes annoying. We might forget it and think our life is crap, with all the films that we can see at the cinema. Always perfect characters, brave, pretty, even when they cry, but nobody is pretty when they cry, etc... For once it is not the case in this film ant it makes me feel relieved. The characters are sometimes annoying, like Cynthia with her hysterical crises, but it makes them more human, realistic. A few weeks ago, I met Timothy Spall ( who plays Maurice) with my high school and he told us about the process of Mike Leigh's creation of characters . The actors worked a lot improvising the scenes to build up their character's personality traits. That is why their performances were so great, they perfectly embody their characters, it is impressive. This film is breath-taking by its realism, I've loved that. I've also liked Mike Leigh's way of filming, like the scene at Maurice's workplace at the beginning, when he tries to make is clients smile, that was well filmed. It is really an Oscar-worthy movie, I totally understand why it won a prize. But there were two scenes which annoyed me though. It was with Monica. The fact, that she is represented as the perfect housewife who cleans the room and cooks is very sexist I think. I mean, Maurice's and Monica's couple were too much a representation of the « traditional couple » to me. And the scene where she is angry because she has her period was so cliché ! Despite these scenes I've loved that film, and I highly recommend it, to people who want realism in movies. I really want more films like that one.

Some life incidents are so shameful we wish we could just erase them from memory and move forward. But in real life, circumstances force us to resort to secrets and lies, no malice behind it, just survival instinct. But you can't buy peace of mind by credit; there comes a time when you pay the bill and the longer you've been lingering on your secrets, the more emotionally devastating the effects are, but out of the chaos, something positive can come, you've got to take the bad with the good, and vice versa."Secrets & Lies", Golden Palm winner of 1996, opens with Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), a sad-eyed box factory worker, with a squeaky voice that hints us about her emotional vulnerability. This is a woman in such a desperate need for love something from the past must have derailed her life. Indeed, she had two daughters from illegitimate relationships (one might be a rape). Hortense, a black woman, played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste, was born from the first pregnancy and was adopted by a black family. We meet her at her adoptive mother's funeral and after two months of grief, she decided to find her natural mother. The second girl is Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook), a soon-to-be 21-year-old girl, working as a street sweeper. Between Roxanne and Cynthia, you can't really call it maternal love; it's a sort of one-sided love-and-hate relationship, Hortense had luckily prevented from. From what it seems, her adoption was more of a blessing. She's no sweeper but an independent and articulate optometrist."Secrets & Lies" follows the path that will lead Hortense to Cynthia and concludes on the revelation, one that will affect Cynthia's life but by a snowball effect all the family members who based their relationship on other secrets and other lies. There's an extraordinary sequence where one confession leads to another, and we feel the pains and the cries as profoundly as if we were parts of these families. I never saw a Mike Leigh film until "Secrets & Lies" but now, this is a director I'm looking forward to discovering. I've never felt so strongly toward a director's work after one film, ever since I discovered John Cassavetes through his masterpiece "A Woman Under the Influence".And the comparison extends to the performance of Brenda Blethyn as Cynthia, perhaps the only acting to equal Gena Rowlands. Cynthia is such a sweet, tender and compassionate woman, punctuating her words with 'sweethearts' and 'darling' in such a way you can't ever feel angry toward her. Except for Roxanne who's in a rush to celebrate her 21st birthday, and go live with her boyfriend, a carpenter named Paul (Lee Ross). The dysfunctional mother-and-daughter relationship doesn't have a specific root, but something's eating Cynthia and creates a sort of existential block, if you don't come to term with your past, how can you ever face the present let alone the future? That's the question this truly life-changing and cathartic movie asks.And "Secrets & Lies" accomplishes other miracles; for one thing, it's a triumph of acting. Blethyn is so extraordinary I can't understand why she didn't win an Oscar. The film had two acting nominations, but everyone was Oscar-worthy. They don't play characters but people and so authentically they remind you someone of your entourage, maybe yourself. Maurice, Cynthia's brother, played by Timothy Spall, is a photographer who does well in his job but whose menage doesn't stand on solid pillars. Monica (Phyllis Young) is irritable, distant and spends so much time taking care of the house you wonder what she tries to compensate, and why she fails to respect her husband.It all comes down to repressed feelings, causing people reunited by love to be estranged from each other, and it'll take one outsider, Hortense, to throw the bombshell. And the build-ups were so meticulously constructed that any display of emotions is rewarding. This is not just a triumph of acting but directing too, Leigh stages his film like in theater with single-take scenes relying on emotions, not action, whether a phone call where Blethyn's facial expressions goes from suspicion to confusion, or during the café scene, where she can't remember having a relationship with a black man, and then you can pinpoint the realization instantly coming with her tearful reaction. And when Hortense asks Cynthia if she has a boyfriend, then Cynthia says she's been in enough trouble, she cracks up and cries again. It's like an emotional roller-coaster proving that indeed some situations are so tragic you better laugh about them.Speaking of laughs, the film isn't all shouting and crying, most of the time, it's quiet and even provides us some comical moments, especially with the little portrait montage. But I suspect most viewers would stay on guard, expecting an ending à la "Requiem for a Dream" but what do you know, the film manages to surprise the viewers again and ends happily. And that it took that angle is the proof of its maturity and intelligence. These are people who lived unhappy for years and could finally take a new start once they came to terms with the past, it's not a life-changing experience as Maurice is still a photographer, he still loves his wife, and Hortense didn't have any problem before meeting Cynthia, she doesn't have any after but something changed definitely, and for the best.Indeed, after this tough emotional journey, it was the perfect ending, one that shows that for all the secrets and lies that can poison our lives, we can still count on love, respect and understanding from the people we love. This is a triumph of acting, directing and storytelling and yet that feels so documentary-like real, like a sort of slice of lives of real people with real problem and coming to the realization that problems are inevitable parts of life and the real thrill is to overcome them.