Themes: Mothers and Daughters, Adoption, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Phyllis Logan, Timothy Spall, Claire Rushbrook
Release Year: 1996
Country: FR/UK
Run Time: 142 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A family is forced to confront the personal issues they've been avoiding for years in this powerful, realistic drama. Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is a working-class British woman whose life has been a long series of painful disappointments. She's single with no romantic prospects and a dead-end job at a box factory. Her daughter Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook) works as a street sweeper and is chronically bitter. Cynthia helped raise her brother, Maurice (Timothy Spall), who is doing well as a photographer, but she rarely sees him and usually blames his wife, Monica (Phyllis Logan). One day, Cynthia receives a phone call from a woman named Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), who claims to be the daughter Cynthia put up for adoption years ago. Cynthia initially reacts with panic, but she agrees to meet Hortense and is surprised to discover that she's a successful and soft-spoken eye doctor -- and that she's black. Cynthia is soon convinced that Hortense is just who she claims to be, and they quickly form a friendship that gives Cynthia a new source of emotional strength. However, when Cynthia decides to introduce the family to her new "friend," it forces them to confront the lies and evasions that have kept them apart all these years. Largely improvised by director Mike Leigh and his cast, Secrets & Lies features standout work by Brenda Blethyn (who earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (who was nominated as Best Supporting Actress), and Timothy Spall. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Mike Leigh's biggest success in America at the time, 1996's Secrets & Lies was also the closest the renegade director had ever come to fashioning a conventional melodrama. Its universal themes of familial reunion and forgiveness no doubt contributed to its success at the box office -- as well as with the Academy, who nominated it for five Oscars -- but there's no mistaking the unforced, nuanced rhythms of Secrets & Lies for those of a traditional Hollywood tearjerker. As per Leigh's improvisational style, the film spreads its attention democratically amongst its characters until finding its core relationship: the unlikely mother-daughter combo of Brenda Blethyn and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Alternately histrionic and sympathetic, Academy Award nominee Blethyn chooses not to opt for an overly sympathetic performance à la Shirley MacLaine or Bette Midler; instead, she and Leigh have the courage to make Cynthia somewhat grating at times (an opinion shared by her other daughter, played by the hilariously frustrated Claire Rushbrook). For her part, Best Supporting Actress nominee Jean-Baptiste is a model of reserve and compassion. Watch for her reactions during the train station reunion scene -- Leigh hadn't told either actress whom to expect during the shoot. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Ron Cook - Stuart; Linda Beckett - Pin-up Housewife; Brian Bovell - Hortense's Brother; Stephen Churchett - Man in Suit; Philip Davis - Man in Suit; Terence Harvey - First Bride's Father; Annie Hayes - Mother in Family Group; Sheila Kelley - Fertile Mother; Trevor Laird - Hortense's Brother; Lesley Manville - Social Worker; David Neilson - Man in Suit; Anthony O'Donnell - Uneasy Man; Lucy Sheen - Nurse; Ruth Sheen - Laughing Woman; Liz Smith - Cat owner; Alison Steadman - Dog Owner; Richard Syms - Vicar; Jean Ainslie - Grandmother; Rachel Lewis - Graduate; Peter Waddington - Man in Suit; Peter Wight - Father in Family Group; Gordon Winter - Laughing Man; Daniel Smith - Teenage Son; Elizabeth Berrington - Jane; Lee Ross - Paul
Credit
Eve Stewart - Art Director, Maria Price - Costume Designer, Chris Rose - First Assistant Director, Jennie Osborn - First Assistant Director, Mike Leigh - Director, Jon Gregory - Editor, Andrew Dickson - Composer (Music Score), Christine Blundell - Makeup, Alison Chitty - Production Designer, Andrew Dickson - Production Designer, Dick Pope - Cinematographer, Simon Channing-Williams - Producer, George Richards - Sound/Sound Designer, Mick Boggis - Sound/Sound Designer, Peter Maxwell - Sound/Sound Designer, Mike Leigh - Screenwriter
The film tells the story of Hortense Cumberbatch, a successful blackoptometrist, who is adopted. After the death of her adoptive mother, she chooses to trace her family history and discovers that her birth mother, Cynthia Purley, is a working-class white woman. She meets her and later meets Cynthia's brother, Maurice Purley, a photographer, and his wife Monica, and Cynthia's daughter Roxanne.
Production
Although Leigh is credited with writing the screenplay, most of the performances were improvised: Leigh told each of the actors about their roles, and let them create their own lines.
Secrets and Lies was partly filmed in Whitehouse Way, Southgate, London.
The emotional scene in the bar, in which Cynthia realises that she is indeed Hortense's mother, was filmed in a single uninterrupted take of almost 8 minutes.
Awards
The film was a critical success. It has a 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a website that collects film reviews, with an average rating of 8.7.[2]
Director Mike Leigh and actress Brenda Blethyn met with Bastard Nation activists at a positive picket in Beverly Hills on March 10, 1997, where they were presented with Bastard Nation T-shirts. (See Beverly Hills Secrets and Lies Rally, March 10, 1997)
