Secrets & Lies (1996)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Purely Joyful Movie!

Pretty Good

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Slowly I am becoming a big fan of Mike Leigh and his kind of film making. I like his style. I have a read a few interviews of his and the way we deals with his actors and executes his scenes and narration is a kind of new school of thought for me. Secrets and Lies was one of the highly recommended movies of Mike Leigh, and it became pertinent for me to watch it. It is story of Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) – a successful optometrist - who after her adopted mother dies, traces her birth- mother Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) a working class lady living with her frustrated daughter Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook) a street cleaner. Slowly Hortense and Cynthia open up and build a LOVE-bond of mother- daughter which brings a new lease of life to Cynthia's mundane and problematic existence. When Cynthia invites Hortense to Roxanne's birthday party held at Cynthia's brother Maurice's (Timothy Spall) residence – the secrets are revealed of who is Hortense? Who was the father of Roxanne? Who was the father of Hortense? Why Maurice is still not having children? The last half an hour is a roller coaster ride of tension and tear- jerking emotions. But all ends up well in the end. Secrets penetrate and each character empathizes with the other to live happily thereafter.That is the strength of a good optimist positive director Mike Leigh that reflects a belief in good human nature and their goodness. The acting of Brenda Blethyn as Cynthia is immaculate. She lives the traumatized hysterical yet endearing character to the hilt. Kudos to her! The other performance that stands out is of Timothy Spall as Maurice, whose character plays a nice binding force in the family.There is an unnecessary sub-plot of Maurice at his photo-studio – which could have had been over-looked. What I like about director Mike Leigh is that he lets his characters flow naturally and takes their own life. Shows a lot of his theatre style where actresses are given freedom to improvise on the spot. Secrets and Lies is for those who enjoy family movies that highlight good human relationships.I would rate the movie 7.5 out of 10.

Hello everybody, I'm going to speak about Secrets and Lies movie. Well i saw this movie last week and I can say this is not the movie of the century. Firstly, I found this movie very long because there is no really action,this is just a series of secrets.The principal character, Cynthia is all the time crying and this is very boring.I can't say this movie is not humorous because there are some scenes which are very funny but that is not enough.In short, this is a "girl's movie" and if you don't like that sort of movie you must not see it because you are going to sleep.

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.

A very good movie: I was expecting a spy movie but instead got a movie exploring prejudices, relationships and family bonds. The acting is superb by all involved, in fact you can easily forget you are watching a movie, everything is so real and natural. Too often you see movies about broken families as being the accepted norm, this movie goes that extra step and shows us in a very powerful way, how blood is thicker than water. A colored grieving young lady, manages to track down her biological mother after 26 years and in doing so manages to bring together several dysfunctional families and forces them to face and overcome their repressed prejudices. A powerful movie (not a fairy tale) full of human emotions and compassion, where love finally wins. (you'll need a box of tissues).