If more producers, pitch persons, and filmmakers could watch Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies, the overall quality of movies could indeed improve. I say this because it is a masterful work on many levels, engaging, comic, and touching. One cannot help but feel inspired and uplifted when the credits abruptly begin to roll. So many phony Hollywood screenplays could be done away with, fewer clunkers would be churned out. Sigh.
The film is centered around the difficulty of relating to family when time has managed to erode the lines of communication. It stars Brenda Blethyn as Cynthia, a downtrodden woman in her forties who can't seem to connect with her 21-year old daughter Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook). It's also been a while since Cynthia has heard from her younger brother Maurice (Timothy Spall) -- for reasons yet to be explained, his financial situation seems to be better than his estranged sister's. Could that be the reason the two have drifted apart? Someone seems to be steering the siblings away from each other, and that would be Maurice's dominating wife Monica (Phyllis Logan). She's the kind of catalystic character you love to hate.
After the death of her adoptive parents, a young black woman named Hortense Cumberbatch (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) decides to track down her real birth mother. It turns out to be Cynthia. After a couple of difficult phone calls, the two hesitantly agree to meet, and their scene in an empty diner is shot in one gripping, extended take. It demonstrates two actresses in supreme form, and reflects what true, career screen performances are made of.
All of the events culminate in a family barbecue for young Roxanne's birthday at Maurice's new house. The dialogue by this point is agonizing, awkward, and nerve-wracking. Everyone is walking on eggshells and there is the constant reminder that the fragile cordiality could snap at any moment.
Secrets & Lies was written and directed by Mike Leigh. It won the Palme D'or award at Cannes in 1996 and was nominated for several Academy Awards the following year, including best picture, best director, best actress (the soaring, aching performance by Blethyn), best supporting actress (the reserved but captivating performance by Jean-Baptiste), and best original screenplay. However, all of the members of the cast are magnificent, including Spall as a caring man torn between his family and his spouse, and Claire Rushbrook as a bitter know-it-all daughter who suddenly realizes how little she actually knows.
The movie is filled with captivating vignettes that connect together very well. There is a scene between Maurice (he's a photographer) and a woman with a huge scar that leads to an unexpected visit by a man from Maurice's past, and it establishes his character so well that it gives an inclination as to how he will react in a pivotal future scene. There's also a great banter early in the picture between Hortense and a fidgety social worker that provides smiles and genuine concern all at once. A lot of the scenes are like that, because the characters are so rich and we care about them almost immediately after they've started speaking. Secrets & Lies is an exceptional film.
