Tockinit not horrible nor great

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

ebodusa-64578 We are expected to believe the totally unbuyable plot point in which Brenda's character cannot remember being with a black man and giving birth to a black baby. This is absolutely ridiculous and should have been rewritten. What was the brilliant Mike Leigh thinking?Nick

Galea Maily 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.

ElMaruecan82 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.

Jackson Booth-Millard In the career of Oscar BAFTA nominated director Mike Leigh (Abigail's Party, Vera Drake, Another Year) this was the film that became his biggest box office hit, it features in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so I was definitely going to watch it. Basically Hortense Cumberbatch (Broadchurch's Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a black middle class woman who works as an optometrist in London, she was adopted as a child and has chosen to trace her family history and find her birth mother, she is warned about what could happen when trying to contact lost relatives, but she continues her investigation. Cynthia Rose Purley (BAFTA and Golden Globe winning, and Oscar nominated Brenda Blethyn) is a white working class woman who lives with her daughter Roxanne (Carrie & Barry's Claire Rushbrook), who works as a street cleaner, and despite an awkward relationship often visits her brother Maurice (BAFTA nominated Timothy Spall), who works as a photographer and lives with his wife Monica (Downton Abbey's Phyllis Logan). Hortense is baffled to learn that her birth mother is a white woman, it is Cynthia, she meanwhile has had an argument with Maurice, once he has left Hortense rings Cynthia and asks to speak to "Cynthia Rose Purley, referring to baby "Elizabeth Purley", born in 1968, Cynthia is shocked to realise she is talking to her long- lost daughter. Cynthia initially hangs up the phone, but Hortense calls back and is determined to find out more about her background, she convinces Cynthia to meet her outside a tube station, they go for a cup of tea, looking at documents Hortense shows her Cynthia feels ashamed, and cannot talk about the birth father. After a while Cynthia and Hortense have formed a friendship, Roxanne notices her meeting a black woman often, but Cynthia is secretive about who she is, she mentions the birthday party for Roxanne to her and invites her, with Maurice's permission accepted, despite thinking it will be awkward Hortense agrees. The day of the birthday barbecue arrives, Hortense posing as a work colleague, Monica makes everyone feel welcome, Cynthia makes open comments about Monica making improvements on the house rather than giving Maurice a child, and Maurice suggests to Roxanne going to college, she does not take this seriously, and while Maurice prepares the food Hortense answers questions from the guests about her career and future. Roxanne blows out her birthday candles, Cynthia becomes exceptionally nervous, she lets slip that Hortense is her daughter, everyone dismisses this as a drunken comment, but she insists it is true, and Roxanne walks out angry and horrified at her mother, Maurice finds her at a bus stop and calms her down. Maurice convincer her to return and talk to Cynthia, who apologises profusely, she explains she became pregnant at fifteen and the father sent Hortense away for adoption, she never expected Hortense to come back. In the heat of the moment Cynthia accuses Monica of being selfish, Maurice reveals that she is physically incapable of having children, they have gone to various doctors and therapies in the past, but she cannot conceive a child, he then loses his temper, stating he tries to make people happy and cannot take it anymore. Hortense has sat back and watched these secrets and lies unfold, Maurice stops her from leaving, he admires her for courage trying to find her own past, he does know who her father is, but will not reveal it either, Cynthia then explains to Roxanne that her father was an American medical student who disappeared following a holiday to Benidorm. In the end a while has passed and things have calmed down, Hortense is free to visit Cynthia and Roxanne at their home, Hortense says she always wanted a sister, Roxanne says that she would be happy to introduce her to people as her half-sister, in spite of the long explanation that comes with it, and the three of them gather at Cynthia's for a cup of tea. Also starring Elizabeth Berrington as Jane, The Bill's Michele Austin as Dionne, EastEnders' Lee Ross as Paul, Lesley Manville as Social Worker, Ron Cook as Stuart, Bridget Jones's Diary's Emma Amos as Girl with Scar, The Bill's Brian Bovell as Hortense's Brother, Trevor Laird as Hortense's Brother, EastEnders' Clare Perkins as Hortense's Sister-in-Law, Elias Perkins McCook as Hortense's Nephew, Big Brother's Keylee Jade "Shabby" Flanders as Girl in Optician's, EastEnders' Nitin Ganatra as Potential Husband, EastEnders' Stephen Churchett as Man in Suit, Coronation Street's David Neilson as Man in Suit, Abigail's Party's Alison Steadman as Dog Owner, The Royle Family's Liz Smith as Cat Owner, Calendar Girls' Angela Curran as Little Boy's Mother, Philip Davis as Man in Suit and Another Year's Ruth Sheen as Laughing Woman. Blethyn is fantastic as the emotional white woman who's past comes back to haunt her, Jean- Baptiste is great as the black woman longing to find out about herself, and Spall and Rushbrook give impressive supporting performances. The storyline of the black woman finding her white birth mother is interesting, the highlight is them talking in the café, and the other secrets and lies from other characters are good as well, this is essentially a razor-sharp observation of life in suburbia, full of melancholy, it is more about the characters interactions than the storyline, overall it is a must see British drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Mike Leigh, it won the BAFTAs for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film and Best Original Screenplay, and it was nominated for Best Film, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama. Very good!