Golden Oldies: Secrets & Lies

Secrets & Lies (1996)

Starring: Brenda Blethyn, Marianna Jean-Baptiste, Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan & Claire Rushbrook

Directed by: Mike Leigh

Rating: ★★

A very loyal Movie Marmite Man reader told me that this was one of their favourite movies of all time, and that I just had to watch it. Unfortunately for them, they will not be happy with me for what I am about to write about a film they lovingly cherish.

The most famous and critically dissected scene from Secrets & Lies.

I have heard a lot about Secrets & Lies, from other critics and from theoretical discussions on moviemaking. The writer/director Mike Leigh allows his actors to improvise most of the dialogue and scenes, as he works with the actors on their characters and then permits them to become that person so that he can then film the results. This type of filmmaking therefore relies on very good actors, which luckily, Secrets & Lies does have. But unfortunately, it means that there is little room for editing, as Leigh seems to be obsessed with incredibly long, tedious, single camera set ups that go on forever. This is a typical example of ‘kitchen sink drama’, a style of cinema that was created during the 1950s/60s in England that dealt with social realism. This means that the topics and issues discussed in the film are meant to be ‘real’ and the way they are dealt with is ‘realistic’. So if you want to watch a perfect example of ‘social realism’, a two and a half hour film where most of it is spent showing people crying on their hallway floor or drinking a cup of coffee whilst looking out of a window, then Secrets & Lies comes highly recommended.

People love thinking things over in Secrets & Lies

Clearly, I’m not fan. I do sometimes enjoy films that are slow paced and drama based and are successful at creating the feeling of a ‘realist’ world: just look at my two recent ‘Pick of the Week’ movies in my Weekly Roundups- The Maid and Undertow. Both of these South American movies are powerfully effective at bringing to life and focusing on the strong central characters that go about their day to day lives. Mike Leigh, however, takes something fairly realistic and then turns it into a melodrama of epic proportions. Secrets & Lies is too long, is unfocused, and is so over the top in how the protagonists deal with the titular secrets and lies that it is like watching an episode of Eastenders.

Blethyn gives a powerful and emotionally charged performance.

On the plus side, the acting is exceptional. Brenda Blethyn gives an annoyingly realistic but watchable portrayal of a working class single mother, and she rightfully won the Palme d’Or, BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress, and was nominated for an Academy Award. You can genuinely believe her as an authentic person because her performance is so good that you feel uncomfortable watching her: as if we literally are standing in her house and glaring at her as she has an emotional breakdown. Marianne Jean-Baptiste was also nominated for an Academy Award, but her role is much more understated, and she plays more of a ‘reactionary’ part by spending most of her screen time dealing with the revelations of the people around her. Timothy Spall is also very good, and even though most of his contribution should have been left on the cutting room floor, as his subplot is out of place and has nothing to do with the main issues of the central plot, he clearly enjoys chewing the scenery in his juicer scenes.

There's an awful lot of crying in this movie... an awful lot.

There are some very moving moments- especially the melodramatic explosion of disclosures towards the end- as the pain inflicted on the central cast is agonizingly drawn out. There are is some very good tension, as the secrets and lies cause an undercurrent of anger and hostility between the family members. I liked the realism, as it is effective, but on the whole it is just a bit too much. Watching people go to the loo and stare at themselves in the mirror just doesn’t do it for me.

Cynthia thinking things over. She does that. A lot.

The concept- a woman discovering that she is adopted and then searching for her birth parents- is quite unreal as Marianne (Jean-Baptiste) is clearly not mixed race, as we are supposed to believe that Cynthia (Blethyn) is her white mother. Ignoring the director’s racial ignorance, the idea is interesting but it is dragged out to death with slow burning ‘realism’ sequences, in which the main cast ‘reflect’ on what is happening, as we are looking at what they don’t say rather than what they do. (Rolls eyes here). Because of this pretentious throwback to Italian neo-realism, film students would appreciate the subtleties, as would equally stuck up film critics, and those who like cheesy melodrama with a (in my opinion) forced resolution.

Happy ever after? Unrealistically, yes.

Whether or not I enjoyed Secrets & Lies is hard to say. I liked the amazing acting, which I respect the cast for, but overall the film is rather dull and boring and because of this, it isn’t ultimately remotely interesting. The emotive elements of it seem forced, mainly because they are so ham-fistedly out of place to the style and conventions of social realism.

Like mother like daughter? I don't think so...

I couldn’t watch it again. It’s too monotonous. I also didn’t like the tacky ending. I can see why film theorists and movie critics like it, but Secrets & Liesis definitely not for me.