Director: Mike Leigh
Screenplay: Mike Leigh
Starring: Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Timothy Spall, , Claire Rushbrook, Phyllis Logan
Year: 1996
Language: English
UK rental release: August 2001 (DVD), 1997 (VHS)
Back to the UK this week. And, for those of you who are also from my home land, you will be aware of the looming cold weather about to hit us over the next few weeks. So, let me take this opportunity to warm you souls with a comedic drama from one of our country's finest directors with Secrets & Lies.
Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Spy Game, The Cell) is suffering a loss. As the tears fall effortlessly down her face at her mother's funeral, she contemplates the next phase of her life.
Maurice (Timothy Spall, The Damned United, the Harry Potter movie franchise) does well for himself too running his own photography business. Wedding work is coming through regularly now, which makes him very busy. Yet, he never has time to see his family and with his niece, Roxanne's (Claire Rushbrook, Under The Skin, Doctor Sleep) birthday due soon, he's thinking of paying them a visit.
He and his wife, Monica (Phyllis Logan, of Downton Abbey - TV series fame) are in on the family secret. Nobody knows, or tells, of the time his sister passed over her baby to the adoption services.
The mother in question is Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn, Atonement, Little Voice). She gave birth to Hortense at the age of just 16, driving her to give her child away. With Roxanne, she still has a mother-daughter relationship but resents the life it has brought her. She feels trapped, regretting the unadventurous outcome to her existence.
A sudden and brave phone call is about to change everything, however...soon, all the secrets will come out!
Those of you not from the isle of Blighty may have assumptions of what life is like here in the UK through years of the media portraying us as either quirky wizards, bowler-hatted bankers or cockney gangsters. If that is you, then you really need to watch Secrets & Lies in order to experience what it's really like here. Thanks to Mike Leigh's graceful ability at portraying reality in his movies, you'll be hard pressed to find anything closer to true British living as most of us understand it.
I'm surprised that I haven't chosen one of his films early in filmbore's existence: the brilliant Mike Leigh, who's exercise in evolving scripts, characters and performances from improvised rehearsals is an example of how experimental film making can produce such rich and rewarding features.
And Secrets & Lies is one that stands out from his incredible roster of pictures. It's a beautiful little story, of different paths taken which eventually lead to the same destination; about the bringing together of two lost souls in need of enrichment through their joining. What's wonderful too is that, amongst this core plot drive, there are other dynamics and complex relationships between the main characters, only subtly drawn upon in order to delicately create a fictional world but with tangible references. This works excellently mainly thanks to the tender, tasteful and comical handling of such topics as class and race.
It's the comedy in the picture that needs further analysis, as this is a particular element to Secrets & Lies that sets it above most films. There's seriously genius placement of comedic bites within dramatic scenes, each nugget recalibrating the emotions you're feeling when they choose to reveal themselves. One moment, you're close to tears (or just crying your eyes out! It's okay...no one else is around!) and in a flash, when you least expect it, you're laughing out loud through a perfectly timed one liner or change of expression, only to then be taken back into the realm of drama but with even more force than before. These verbal and visible juxtapositions are rare in cinema, and it's something Mike Leigh has always been able to handle with such penetrative nature.
There are the odd moments of direct comedy that still act to oppose the melancholic aspects, such as the scene at Maurice's photography studio, where we see a succession of poses from his customers. It features cameos from some Mike Leigh regulars and other recognisable faces of British acting. Further portraits made in the same manner punctuate other points in the picture, lightening the mood when it takes a turn.
Speaking of the lens, you may notice the "matter-of-fact" camera work on show here. For most of the film, Leigh just locks off the camera with one simple angle, trusting the plot and performances to grant personality to the feature. In segues however, you will see some gentle pans, and quirky angles, but nothing too prominent. Thankfully, this is the right balance, as this is a tale of humanity and people and not a vehicle for an art house, expressive piece. 
This film, as with any Mike Leigh film, is all about the performances and how these are manifested. Leigh is famous for his unusual approach to film making, and there are still whispers to the precious method that he uses. For those of you unaware, most of Leigh's films are effectively improvised. A loose plot is formed, which can change through the process, and a rehearsal space is taken up by the cast to start forming characters and sub-plot lines. Lines are made up on the spot, and altered frequently until there is some shape to the "script" (there isn't one, really). And then, when shooting begins, improvisation is still used heavily, creating a sense of a genuine and perceptible environment.
This is all achieved thanks to Leigh's team of acting greats. Over the years he has built up a team of sensational performers that he can depend on to handle the gruelling rehearsal process and deliver during production. In this particular piece, each and every actor is extraordinary. Even the briefest in roles is portrayed with beauty, sensitivity and indelible presence.
This is how a performer truly nails a role. Once you've seen her in this, you'll be hard pressed to find anything stronger from many of today's actors. That's why, alongside the film winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1996, it was fitting that she also won the gong for best actress at the same festival. No argument here.
Admittedly, Secrets & Lies was quite successful. Some of you may feel that it doesn't meet the usual criteria to be selected as filmbore's pick of the week. Yet, it's here for two reasons. Firstly, even with it winning some awards, including the already mentioned Palme d'Or and receiving five Academy nominations, it's strange that a lot of people haven't heard of this, which is a travesty. Secondly, the budget is modest (at about $4.5 million), it's sensationally British and an example of a small film UK film doing what it does best...showing the big guns how we do it!
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Alternatively, you could contact me directly about this film or my other reviews on pickoftheweek@filmbore.co.uk
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