SECRETS AND LIES
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1996 Scott Renshaw
(October) Starring: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook. Screenplay: Mike Leigh. Producer: Simon Channing-Williams. Director: Mike Leigh. Running Time: 142 minutes. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, adult themes) Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
If the ancient Greeks hadn't already defined drama as character in action, Mike Leigh would have had to do it. Leigh, along with Ken Loach, Eric Rohmer and John Sayles, is in that exclusive company of film-makers who understand that an effective story is not simply what happens to the people on the screen -- it _is_ the people on the screen. A Mike Leigh film is the ultimate in low concept, the actors burying themselves so deeply in their characters that they are able to tear out their hearts and lay them bare. SECRETS & LIES is about human beings, and that is what makes it a rarity; what makes it great is how compelling the interaction between those human beings turns out to be.
SECRETS & LIES begins with a funeral for the adoptive mother of Hortense Cumberbatch (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a young black optometrist in London. Hortense decides that it is time to seek out her birth mother at last, and the woman she finds is Cynthia Purley (Brenda Blethyn), a factory worker with another illegitimate daughter, 20-year-old Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook). Initially in deep denial over their relationship, Cynthia eventually warms to Hortense, and the two begin to form a friendship. But there is the question of how to introduce Hortense to the rest of the family, a question complicated by the fact that tensions already run deep and unspoken within the Purley family.
There are so many brilliantly shaded characterizations in SECRETS & LIES that the Oscars could find contenders in every major category if the voters were inclined to notice. Timothy Spall does a wondrous thing by giving an urgency to a fundamentally decent man, a professional photographer whose professional life is an attempt to capture moments of serenity he is unable to find at home; Phyllis Logan invests Monica with a reservoir of bitterness over her inability to have children, a bitterness which spills over into contempt for Cynthia. Marianne Jean-Baptiste's Hortense is a quiet, centered woman who sees the life she might have led in her half-sister Roxanne, played with a perpetual sneer by Claire Rushbrook. Even minor roles -- the social worker (Lesley Manville) who gives Hortense the information she seeks; Maurice's one-time mentor (Ron Cook), now a shattered alcoholic -- are so complete that SECRETS & LIES grips you with its refusal to permit the intrusion of one-dimensional characters.
With so many superb characterizations in SECRETS & LIES, it is all the more extraordinary that Brenda Blethyn's work leaps out at you. Cynthia Purley is a woman whose entire life has been a desperate search for someone to show her affection, a search which has resulted mostly in pain, and Blethyn makes her one of the most heartbreaking characters I have ever seen committed to film. The scene in which Cynthia and Hortense meet for the first time is staged by Leigh in one mesmerizing seven minute take, with Blethyn taking us through a dizzying array of emotions: regret, fear, anxiety, embarrassment, pride, relief. Every word out of Blethyn's mouth comes from the soul of a real person who wants nothing more than happiness for herself and her family, and finds herself on the verge of falling apart every time she is disappointed. It is an utterly remarkable piece of acting.
As fascinating as all these individuals are, however, it is the way in which they are joined to tell a story of a family in crisis which elevates SECRETS & LIES. The final act of the film takes place at a birthday party for Roxanne, with Hortense attending as Cynthia's "friend," her true identity unknown to anyone else. Scene after scene explores the dynamics of familial interaction, with resentments bubbling just beneath the surface at every moment, and shows how the things we hide from the people who are supposed to be closest to us in our lives create mountains of unresolved issues. Leigh is so skillful for so long that it is a genuine shame that the final fifteen minutes are devoted largely to an over-wrought airing of emotional dirty laundry, with tears, speeches and accusations flying across the living room. He didn't need manufactured drama of that sort, because the characters in SECRETS & LIES live lives of everyday drama. They, and Mike Leigh's film, are beautiful simply because they are human.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 family secrets: 9.
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