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Amazon.co.uk Review
If a film fan had never heard of director Mike Leigh, one might explain him as a British Woody Allen. Not that Leigh's films are whimsical or neurotic; they are tough-love examinations of British life--funny, outlandish and biting. His films share a real immediacy with Allen's work: they feel as if they are happening now. Leigh works with actors--real actors--on ideas and language. There is no script at the start (and sometimes not at the end). Secrets and Lies involves Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), an elegant black woman wanting to learn her birth mother's identity. She will find it's Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), who is one of the saddest creatures we've seen in film. She's also one of the most real and, ultimately, one of the most loveable. Timothy Spall is Cynthia's brother, a giant man full of love who is being slowly defeated by his fastidious wife (Phyllis Logan).
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
Synopsis
Mike Leigh's multi award-winning drama, Secrets And Lies, is both hysterically funny and profoundly sad in its portrayal of a wounded British family. Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a young black optometrist who has just buried her beloved adoptive mother. In her sorrow she embarks on a search for her birth mother, who turns out to be Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), a white factory worker living a lonely life with her surly daughter Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook). No one in the family--except Cynthia's brother Maurice (Timothy Spall) and his wife Monica (Phyllis Logan)--knows that Cynthia gave up a child for adoption as a teenager, without ever seeing the baby. Hortense contacts Cynthia and after a heart-wrenching reconciliation they become best friends. Maurice and Monica--childless but financially secure--are very fond of Roxanne and host a family barbeque to celebrate her twenty-first birthday. Cynthia convinces Hortense to attend the party and meet the family--as a mate from the factory--but during the celebrations the family's secrets and lies emerge in a very cathartic, emotional moment. Leigh's trademark for developing his characters and storylines from an intense series of improvisations with the actors reaches its summit with Hortense and Cynthia's reunion in a coffee shop, resulting in another deeply moving portrait of a family at a personal crossroads.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
What may strike you about Secrets & Lies is its length - "gritty" British films are not usually two and a quarter hours long. However, this is no ordinary "gritty" British film. Taking adoption as his theme, Mike Leigh populates his film with memorable characters, many of whom are not instantly likeable, but all of whom are undoubtedly real. It is a remarkable film that engages us from the start, when we witness the funeral of the mother of Hortense, an affluent black optometrist. With both of her adoptive parents dead, she decides to seek out her birth mother, who turns out to be an on-the-edge working class woman with a foul-mouthed daughter and a job making slits in boxes.
The most remarkable aspect of the film is the acting, as one would expect with Leigh. Although it was Brenda Blethyn to whom one's eye is attracted and to whom all praise was aimed, she is just one of a cast full of superb characterisations. Her trembling, knife-edge performance is indeed touching and memorable, but equal praise must be heaped on Marianne Jean-Baptiste for her beautifully measured Hortense. In many ways, hers is the hardest part to play as she gets no big shouting scenes and cries much less than everyone else, but her initial
awkwardness with her new family is wonderfully moving. Timothy Spall as a wedding photographer also stands out in another of his understated put-upon male roles. But it would be impossible to pick out a best performance as you never once doubt the reality of the people you are seeing on screen.
Leigh uses enigma brilliantly from the start ('who's died?', for instance, in the very first shot!) and emphasises throughout the theme of looking and seeing (Hortense as an optometrist; Spall as a photographer). Although I still don't quite see why it's been described as Leigh's hilarious bittersweet comedy - I found it tenser than most Hollywood actioners and was compelled by the drama of it throughout - I would strongly recommend it to any serious connoisseur of film, student of sociology or anyone looking for a different kind of story told very well indeed.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
With 'Secrets & Lies' (1996) Mike Leigh produced one of the most accurate snap-shots of what goes on behind closed doors of a true British family. As the narrative unwinds we get drawn deeper and deeper into the lives of Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), and other members of the family.
Leigh reveals to us how secrets and lies can cause upset, pain,
and regret in what has to be one of the best British films of the 90's. With spot-on dialogue and glorious performances it is hard to find fault with Leighs master work. The stand out for me is brenda Blethyn as working-class poor Cynthia. Just when we thought Cynthia would live out the rest of her days as a worker in a banal factory, with her confrontational daughter Roxanne, she is thrown a life line in the form of Hortense, and we see their relationship flourish. Timothy Spall is also on top form as the glue that holds the family together.
The film is a harsh but realistic portrayal of the British family although the ending is fairly predictable and the film seems long on repeat viewings, you can't help but feel uplifted by the sentimental outcome.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I saw this a decade ago and it shook me up then. Now, even more. I did find the birth mother's performance at once over the top and perfect and I'm torn between trying to decide if this is a perfect film or just some really great movie that got made by accident. Either way, you should see it. A marvelous commentary on race and society. Right-on hit the mark as far as accents and attitudes. Hortense is a treasure and the centerpiece of this film.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant Film!
A brilliant film and I was so pleased to find this second hand copy because it's no longer available unfortunately.
Published 19 days ago by Mrs. J. E. Mills
Mike Leigh at his Best.....
Secrets & Lies is the cold and sober truth after the relative joviality of Leigh's Life Is Sweet. The hangover, the wall of reality that hits you, in slowed down time. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Tim Kidner
Fantastic!
You pretty much know what you're gonna get from a Mike Leigh film, don't you? Grittiness & a look at "ordinary" life is the usual kind of fare, and this movie does not disappoint. Read more
Published 16 months ago by adamski
Excellent
Fantastic film, Mike Leigh at his best. Highly recommended as one of his best films.
Published 20 months ago by Warren
Some dark humour leavens this comedy drama about a dysfunctional...
"Secrets and Lies" is in many ways a painfully bleak look at the private miseries of one seemingly ordinary London family. Read more
Published on 26 May 2010 by Drum
a must see
Superb Mike Leigh film - if you are a fan of his work no doubt you have already seen it. Heartbreakingly touching with dark humour. The realism is cringe making. Read more
Published on 19 Nov 2009 by Mrs. Ln Wisby
Utterly Brilliant
Between 1965 and 1975, about 250,000 adopted babies were adopted in the UK alone. This is the story of one of them, with interesting twists and a brilliantly crafted script and... Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2009 by T. Upchurch
Secrets and Lies DVD
This is a gripping tale of the complexities of family life which I think most people can identify with. Read more
Published on 22 July 2009 by S. Miller
DVD includes the classic short, A Sense of History
...and I haven't seen the brilliant and hilarious piece on any other DVD. To have it on a DVD with such a good feature film is double brilliant. Read more
Published on 1 July 2009 by Lou Knee
Mike Leigh at his best
Secrets and Lies is a film with Timothy Spall at its heart and at his best. He is the pivotal figure in a family full of secrets that have ruined relationships between Spall's... Read more
Published on 1 July 2009 by Mr. S. D. Middleton
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