Was thinking about this today...

Marianne Jean-Baptiste's Hortense is absolutely wonderful and well deserving of the Best Supporting Actress nomination, as is Brenda Blethyn's nomination for BA. Actually, this is a wonder picture, exploring love and animosity and the gray areas in between along with the best of them. Its a real winner and often overlooked. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a quality film.

Brenda Blethyn and Marianne Jean-Baptiste are both wonderful, but I don't remember much other than that. I'm not a huge fan of small British films, but this seems like of of the better ones.

A probing insight into expectations, manipulation, and hope. I really loved this movie, and its Leigh's career best. everyone should see it, and that's a fact...not sentiment.

Keep an eye out for who "shows their true face" for their photoshoots. Its Leigh's metaphor for the film as a whole.

A+

A-


Before Secrets and Lies, I have been exposed to only one other Mike Leigh film - Vera Drake - and it didn't really impress me. I did't like it's improvising style and the movie didn't affect me emotionally as it could have, despite a good performance by its leading actress.

Secrets and Lies is a polar opposite, though. It's a very touching, warm and good-hearted movie that leaves a lasting impression. It certainly starts off on a small note and takes its time to develop and introduce the characters during its 2+ hours running time. However, by the end of the movie we get a movie dealing with secrets within a family that feels so real and natural like no other movie dealing with the same topics in recent years did. We get a set of fully-developed three-dimensional characters and that doesn't only apply to the two main characters of the movie, but basically to every member of the family, each of them suffering under the secrets and lies they had to endure over the years. It all comes to light afterall. The movie doesn't offer a throughly happy ending, but it is satisfying and leaves you just with the right slight touch of optimism.

I think what's the main reason why this movie works is its tremendous cast. First and foremost I've got to mention Brenda Blethyn who delivers the performance of her life here. She lost the Oscar to Fraces McDormand in Fargo that year and I've gotta say, it's a shame. Her character might come across as a bit annoying at first, but ultimately she's a very tragic and heartbreakingly sad character. Blethyn plays that multi-facetted role to the perfection. Timothy Spall...I've never seen him in a role like this one before and he pulls it off tremendously. Claire Rushbrook is also great as Roxanne. I loved the scenes betwen her and her mother as they felt very very realistic to the point where it almost hurt. Phyllis Logan, as Timothy Spall's bitter wife Monica leaves a good impression too. Surprisingly enough, it's Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Hortense who's the leeast memorable here. i thought she didn't quite have the needed meat that the role like this you needed. Then again it's just hard to be completely perfect. Overall, though, it's not about the single great performances, it's about the great way the entire cast works here together. Simply outstanding work.

It's not a perfect movie, but as far as this genre goes, it ranks among the best thanks to a good screenplayby Leight, but mostly thanks to its cast. Yeah, it drags a bit in the first half and Roxanne's boyfriend doesn't serve much of a cause here, but overall I really really enjoyed it. Another small thing I liked was that they never revealed everything by th end of the movie, having left some things just implied.