SECRETS AND LIES
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1996 Ben Hoffman
While there are some similarities between SECRET AND LIES and the recent A FAMILY THING, each stands on its own and approaches their stories from different angles. In the latter, a sixty-something white man (Robert Duvall) discovers that the woman he thought was his mother and who has just died is not his real mother. He sets out to find the blood-family he never knew or had heard about. He discovers they are black, with a half-brother played by James Earl Jones.
SECRETS AND LIES, on the other hand, is about Hortense (Marianne Jean- Baptiste) a young black woman who is an optometrist in London. She knows the parents with whom she has been living until they died were her adoptive parent, not her "real" parents. When she gets a sudden urge to learn about her real mother she is given the files the adoption agency has on her.. When she finds her mother, who is white, the mother, Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is shocked and disbelieving until Hortense comes up wiith enough detail to convince her that they are, indeed, mother and daughter.
While Hortense and Cynthia take a liking to each other, there is the rest of the family who have to be wooed. Cynthia has another daughter, Roxanne, (Claire Rushbrook) and how will she take the news that she has a black half-sister?
The film is very touching, and well acted, so that you are left with the hope that all will turn out well in the end. At least, that was my wish. Go see it.
Directed by Mike Leigh
Rating 3.5
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Ben Hoffman
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