Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

The Secret is a really interesting movie starring David Duchovny as a grieving father who finds his teenage daughter possessed with the spirit of his dead wife. It's a remake of a Japanese movie, and this is not some quirky Freaky Friday type movie - it's for adults. I went into this expecting some kind of ghost story, but it ended up being something completely different. This has nothing to do with that ridiculous new-age positive thinking book of the same name.

The story begins with a troubled relationship between a mother (Lili Taylor) and her rebellious teenage daughter (Olivia Thirlby). Duchovny plays the father who stays basically neutral in the whole thing. When mother and daughter go off on a trip together, they get in a bad car accident and both wind up in the hospital. The mother dies in the ER, and the daughter remains unconscious until the following day. When she wakes up, her father starts calling her by name and she asks, "Why are you calling me that?" She then looks into a mirror and starts freaking out and screaming, "This isn't me!"

The daughter wakes up believing that she is her mother, and she has her mother's every memory, right down to the intimate details of her relationship with Duchovny. He starts trying to find a medical explanation for what is happening, and thinks it is some kind of aftershock from the traumatic accident. It gets even weirder when the girl says that she can feel her daughter inside, and she comes through one night during a dream.

The title of the movie has to do with the idea that the father and daughter decide to keep the situation a secret so nobody will think either one is crazy. He encourages the girl (his wife) to resume her daughter's usual life and try to keep things going for when the daughter finally returns. The problem is that Duchovny realizes if the daughter comes back, he is going to lose his wife all over again. It's quite a unique situation.

Where the story really begins to unfold is when the mother, using the daughter's body, takes over her life and learns who her daughter really was. She finds out about her friends and her schoolwork, her love life, and so on. It turns into a story about a mother literally walking in her daughter's shoes and getting some insight into why the daughter was so angry all the time. It's rather touching in some aspects.

I think that a big part of what kept this movie out of American theaters was all the sexual tension between the father and his wife/daughter. Nothing happened between them, but it was really weird at times. Although it teetered on the border of incest and pedophilia, I never felt like it crossed the line. The mother's persona was often influenced by the daughter's physical attributes, mainly hormones, and she started to act like her daughter - or maybe it was just an aspect of the daughter taking her body back. I still think some of that could have been toned down to help this movie reach a larger audience. In the end, a lot of what happens is up to interpretation, which is why this is such an interesting movie.

Olivia Thirlby, the beautiful Canadian actress who plays the daughter, is absolutely brilliant. She delivers a very strong performance and is completely believable despite her character being so unique. You can easily tell when it's the mother or the daughter speaking, from the tone of her voice to the physical mannerisms. You might recognize her as having played Ellen Page's friend in Juno. David Duchovny is alright in the role, but he basically just looked confused for the whole thing, and rightly so. The supporting cast is also good, but this movie rides entirely on the talent of Olivia Thirlby, and she made the otherwise ridiculous plot seem plausible.

I was really taken back by The Secret. It will leave you pondering the conclusion, and I like movies that make you think.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age