I don't recall the last time that a film extracted so many of my pent-up tears with such honest and intelligent subject matter as this one. This is a poignantly dramatic film that takes you on an emotional roller coaster ride. Director Mike Leigh finds that perfect balance, in this film, between tragedy and comedy.

Historical Background: Mike Leigh was born in Salford, England in 1943. He began studying acting and then art before finding his way into film school. Working first in theater, he developed interest in an unusual collaborative and improvisational process with his actors and carried the technique over into his film work, which began in 1971 with Bleak Moments. That low-budget film was financed by actor Albert Finney and won prizes at film festivals in Chicago and Locarno. Nevertheless, Leigh was unable to attract funding for further film endeavors for more than a decade, turning his attention in the meanwhile to television and theater work. His next two films were the made-for-television variety, Meantime (1983) and Four Days in July (1984). His next feature film made expressly for the big screen was High Hopes (1988), which was screened at the New York Film Festival that year and earned Leigh increasing public attention. He followed with Life Is Sweet (1991) and Naked (1993), both of which further enhanced his reputation for an innovative approach.

Secret and Lies solidified Leigh's international reputation when it took the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1996 and also earned a well-deserved Best Actress award for Brenda Blethyn. Secrets & Lies also garnered Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress (Blethyn), Best Supporting Actress (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, though it captured none of the trophies. Since that success, Leigh has made Career Girls (1997), Topsy Turvy (1999), and All or Nothing (2002). Many of Leigh's early films had strong political undercurrents, but his later work has turned progressively to broader existential and psychological themes. Leigh's greatest strength as a director is a consistent ability to drawn superlative performances from his actors because of the painstaking way in which he works with them and sometimes withholds portions of the script in order to generate genuinely spontaneous reactions.

The Story: The film opens at a funeral. Twenty-seven year-old Hortense Cumberbatch (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), who, by appearances, is a black woman, is burying her beloved mother, with many of the family's nearest and dearest in attendance, paying their respects. Soon, the story shifts threads to follow a teddy bearish looking thirty-eight year-old white photographer, Maurice Purley (Timothy Spall), shooting photographs of a nervous young bride in his studio. We observe immediately that Maurice has a knack for getting his subjects to smile. These two characters, Hortense and Maurice, prove to be the only rock solid characters in the film, but it will be nearly two hours before the two finally meet, as their individual threads very gradually converge.

Hortense's subsequent story derives from the fact that she was long ago adopted. She had known of it since she was just seven, but it had not seemed important to her as long as one or both of her parents were alive. Her father had died some while ago and with the recent death of her mother, Hortense feels that it is time that she tries to learn about her origin and find her birth mother, if possible. Since the laws in Britain provide adopted children with the right to seek their birth parents, she is able to obtain records of her adoption, including her birth certificate. As she scours the papers, Hortense is struck by what she concludes must be some kind of mistake: her mother is listed as a white woman. It is no mistake, however. Hortense is actually mixed race and her mother is a white woman named Cynthia Rose Purley.

Meanwhile, Maurice goes about his daily life shooting photographs of various bizarre characters in his studio and at weddings. At home, Maurice is married but childless, but it's just as well, since his wife, Monica (Phyllis Logan), is a handful, especially once a month when she suffers unbearable menstrual cramps and insufferable moodiness. She's an irascible woman who has channeled her middleclass frustrations into refurbishing and redecorating their home into a state of immaculate perfection. Maurice and Monica discuss organizing a twenty-first birthday party for their niece, Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook), to whom they are somewhat devoted, Maurice especially, since they are themselves childless. Monica's principal reluctance is that they'd obviously have to also invite Roxanne's mother, Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), for whom Monica has no patience. Cynthia is Maurice's sister and he, at least, cherishes her, in part because it was she who raised him during his final years as a teenager after their father died suddenly. Maurice loves his sister but the incompatibility between sister and wife has strained the relationship between brother and sister. Monica reluctantly agrees to host a barbecue at their home for the birthday event, still more than a month off, and Maurice pays a visit to his sister's decrepit flat to proffer the invitation.

Cynthia and her daughter Roxanne have a rather poor relationship, more from Roxanne's side than her mothers. Roxanne is at that stage in life when her mother is an embarrassment to her and a nuisance for taking an interest in Roxanne's circumstances. Roxanne works as a street sweeper (Maurice takes a bit of offense when Monica comments that Roxanne is "back on the street"). Roxanne has a perpetually contorted, twisted-up facial expression, signifying her disdain for whatever her mother has to say. Roxanne also has an off-and-on relationship going with a young man named Paul (Elizabeth Berrington), but refuses her mother the courtesy of bringing him round to meet her. And the last thing Roxanne wants to hear about from her mother is advice about birth control, especially given her resentment of her own illegitimate status.

Meanwhile, Hortense has driven by the address listed for her birthmother, found a likely phone number, and after much rumination, places the fateful call. The call, of course, is made to Cynthia Rose Purley, who is also the Cynthia who is sister of Maurice and mother of Roxanne. Hortense, hardly knowing how to broach her subject, says that she's calling in reference to Elizabeth Hurley, which was her birth name. Cynthia initially assumes the inquiry relates to her mother, who was also Elizabeth, but when the purpose of the call becomes apparent, Cynthia is overwhelmed with emotion and terrified. Roxanne has no idea that her mother had another child, five years before her own illegitimate birth and Cynthia is terrified that her secret might be exposed. Her preeminent concern is that Hortense not come around and after eliciting a promise from Hortense to that effect, she hangs up, frenzied. After a few minutes, Hortense calls again and is able, this time, to extract a promise from Cynthia to meet her at a private spot, outside one of the tube (subway) stations. Cynthia agrees on the place and a time, but again hangs up before exchanging information about how they are to identify one another. That proves fateful.

At the tube station, Hortense finally settles on Cynthia, who is standing nearby, as the most likely person and approaches her. Cynthia had never seen her child after her birth and has no idea that she is half-black. Cynthia is flabbergasted and totally convinced that there must have been some gruesome mistake at the agency. Hortense could not possibly be her child. "Why, just look at you!" Cynthia declares that she's never even slept with a black man. They go into a coffee shop and sit together for a while and Hortense shows Cynthia her birth certificate, complete with Cynthia's name and signature. Suddenly, Cynthia recalls something, which we can only assume was a one-time exception to her solid belief that she had not ever been with a black man. Cynthia had assumed that the child was the product of a later relationship she had had with a white boyfriend. Cynthia's reaction to Hortense is not, however, essentially racist, but really just a matter of bafflement. In gazing at Hortense, Cynthia realizes that this young woman is more beautiful, elegant, competent, and personable than Cynthia could ever have hoped. Hortense is a successful optometrist and middleclass, while Cynthia and her daughter Roxanne are coarse and uneducated and hopelessly mired in working class poverty. The discovery process between Cynthia and Roxanne is beautifully handled in this film and only marginally delineated by the racial aspect.

Cynthia and Hortense continue to meet and get to know one another a bit. Each proves important, in a way, to the other. Hortense discovers her identity and the circumstances of her birth and adoption. For Cynthia, it has been years since anyone took an interest in her life or feelings. Roxanne gives her short shrift and Maurice has been drawn away from her under pressure from Monica. Now, suddenly, Cynthia has in her life a wonderful person who wants nothing more than to learn about her life, feelings, and preferences. Cynthia asks her brother Maurice if she can bring a friend with her to the barbecue.

That sets the stage for the ultimate and highly dramatic scene in which the whole family and cast of characters of the film are drawn together under circumstances that make it inevitable that old secrets and lies will be exposed. One old pretense after another comes tumbling down in a series of dramatic revelations.

Themes: There's a beautiful thematic irony in this film. Hortense goes looking for her identity by trying to reconnect with her distant past, but it is her stability, as a person, that causes several of the other characters to reestablish their identities in the present. We learn that it's sometimes possible to reconstruct one's past but, more importantly, it's possible to reconstruct one's future. We don't have to continue the same dysfunctional patterns over and over. We can vent, open up, unmask hidden secrets, acknowledge lies and march off into the future renewed. Hortense serves as the catalyst for everyone else's catharsis. Cynthia, Roxanne, and Monica all discover new ways to approach their lives and relationships. Maurice, in one of the film's few false steps, states the point a bit too explicitly for my taste near the film's end: "Secrets and lies. We're all in pain! Why can't we share our pain?"

Production Values: This film has a very strong script which separates the story from what otherwise might come across as soap opera. For one thing, the tone of the storytelling is distinctly unsentimental – almost documentary. For another, the characters are all well drawn and Leigh allows their personalities to emerge naturally from the dialog and situations. We learn about the characters by watching how they react to various situations. Hortense might otherwise have remained a mystery to us because she has to control what she reveals throughout most of the film, but Leigh deftly provides her with an early scene with a friend where she can open up and gain audience sympathy.

Leigh also avoids racial stereotyping by having his one black (actually mixed race) character the most accomplished and upwardly mobile of the entire group. The shock of the racial relationship (for Hortense and then Cynthia) is never played for cheap one-liners, but treated realistically and earnestly. Certainly, the emotion generated by this film is intense, but it's a sympathetic blending of grief, compassion, and humor. The dialog has a high level of veracity, except for a very few lines that slip over the edge between credibility and excess. Even the secondary characters in this film are memorably quirky, such as the social worker that interviews Hortense, the former shop owner, and the photographic subjects.

The film is just a bit on the long side (142 minutes), but the compensation is that the entire length of it is jam-packed with strong performances from an exceptional ensemble cast. There are times when Leigh goes off on a tangent, such as the montage of characters (some taken from previous Leigh films) that Maurice photographs in his studio and especially the return of the down-on-his-luck former owner of his shop, looking for a job. It is tempting to suggest that Leigh could have pared the film down to a more conventional length, but the seemingly superfluous scenes add a nice touch, suggesting that life is not made up of one straight-line narrative. We get the sense that there are other stories that could have been told instead, simply by expanding one of the tangents.

There're some nice bits of symbolism built into the script. It's not by chance that the two most insightful and psychologically robust individuals are respectively an optometrist and a photographer. One, by training, has an eye for closely observing people and putting them in the right mood for a good photograph. The other is expert in how others see. Leigh has a well-known preference for the working class and is known for his satirical treatment of middleclass foibles. Monica takes the brunt of Leigh's acidic portrayal of middleclass values while Hortense gets off Scot-free. They are really the only two characters in this film with middleclass pretensions.

The ending could have been stronger, in my opinion. The tone of it is right as well as the outcome, but it could have been rendered a little more decisively. That's a minor quibble, however. The intense emotional moments were distributed nicely throughout the story and it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to provide a topper at the end. Leigh created a lovely kind of framing for his film by having it begin with the death of one mother and end with the rebirth of another.

The highlight of the film is the character Cynthia, who is a crass, vulgar, poorly educated, and not particularly bright lower class woman, who has poorly managed her life, twice having unintended pregnancies outside of wedlock. Every particular about her is such as should not appeal to most members of an audience, but she nevertheless captures our respect and affection, simply because she has a big heart and a resilience in the face of dire life circumstances. However much Roxanne abuses her, Cynthia continues to dish out maternal concern and love, however ineffectively. However much her brother ignores her (due to his wife's influence), Cynthia waits patiently for his attentions. When her long lost child returns, Cynthia absorbs the shock to the racial disconnect and proves an admirably loving parent once again.

Leigh shows that he possesses mastery of montage editing, but also sometimes lets his camera run for long uninterrupted shots, which allows his actors to really strut their stuff. There are three such extended shots in this film, and all involve deep emotions developing naturally and intensely. This is just one of the methods employed by Leigh to regularly extract superior performances from his talented team of stock players. Leigh actually withheld from some of the cast that Hortense, the long lost relative, would be played by a black actress. As a result, some of the performers were in genuine shock when the long-lost daughter shows up at the door, and their psychic imbalance was then transposed into the performances. The cinematography is somewhat the gritty variety, not lovely to look at, but consistently well composed. This is a character-driven film, however, and not mainly intended as a visual treat.

The greatest strength of this film is a whole slew of very strong performances. Brenda Blethyn, as Cynthia, is the standout and deservedly won the Best Actress award at Cannes (and probably should have taken the Oscar as well). To call Blethyn plain is to exaggerate her beauty and films don't regularly provide stellar parts for unattractive women. She made the most of what was probably the opportunity of a career. I haven't myself seen her subsequent films, but I understand that she has since been typecast in the role she played here, as a vulgar, neurotic, and impassioned lower class dame. She had previous appearances in The Witches (1990) and A River Runs Through It (1992) and a subsequent one in Little Voice (1998).

Timothy Spall is very nearly as strong as Blethyn in the role of Maurice Purley, a pillar of stability among the troubled women who surround him. Spall has proven himself one of the ablest character actors of the present generation, in such films as Life Is Sweet (1991), Topsy-Turvy (1999), Chicken Run (2000), Vanilla Sky (2001), The Last Samurai (2003), and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Claire Rushbrook, a newcomer in 1996, was outstanding as Roxanne and later appeared in Under the Skin (1997). Marianne Jean-Baptiste was also outstanding in a more conventional kind of role. She deservedly earned an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress and has since appeared in 28 Days (2000) and The Cell (2000). Other fine performances were turned in by Phyllis Logan (as Monica) and Elizabeth Berrington (as Maurice's assistant, Jane). Leigh's method of working with the actors through improvisation brings out not only great individual performances but great ensemble work.

Bottom-Line: This film is a rare treat – powerfully emotional and poignant without undue sentimentality. The emotion flows naturally from entirely believable circumstances that any of us could find ourselves in. It takes no suspension of disbelief or incredible leap of imagination to see oneself as part of this family. There are no extras on the 20th Century Fox DVD for this film, but no matter. The film itself has the "extras" built in and is long enough to provide an evening of entertainment without supplements. This is another British film where I benefited from turning the subtitles on, despite in being in English. The dialog bears little resemble to American English.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age