Product Details

• Actors: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook, Marianne Jean-Baptiste
• Directors: Mike Leigh
• Writers: Mike Leigh
• Producers: Simon Channing Williams
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: February 1, 2005
• Run Time: 136 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0006HBZD8
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #48,981 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Secrets and Lies" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If a film fan had never heard of director Mike Leigh, one might explain him as a British Woody Allen. Not that Leigh's films are whimsical or neurotic; they are tough-love examinations of British life--funny, outlandish, and biting. His films share a real immediacy with Allen's work: they feel as if they are happening now. Leigh works with actors--real actors--on ideas and language. There is no script at the start (and sometimes not at the end). Secrets and Lies involves Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), an elegant black woman wanting to learn her birth mother's identity. She will find it's Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), who is one of the saddest creatures we've seen in film. She's also one of the most real and, ultimately, one of the most lovable. Timothy Spall is Cynthia's brother, a giant man full of love who is being slowly defeated by his fastidious wife (Phyllis Logan).

There is a great exuberance of life in Secrets & Lies, winner of the Palme D'Or and best actress (Blethyn) at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival--not Zorba-type life but the little battles fought and won every day. Leigh's honest interpretation of daily life is usually found only on the stage. Secrets & Lies is more realistic than a stage production, however, especially when Leigh shows us uninterrupted scenes. Critic David Denby states that Leigh has "made an Ingmar Bergman film without an instant of heaviness or pretension." If that sounds like your cup of tea, see Secrets & Lies. --Doug Thomas

Product Description

After her adoptive parents die, a young black woman seeks out her natural birth mother, only to discover her mother is white, thus setting in motion the revelation of a whole series of secrets and lies.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Why can't we share our pain?", September 21, 2000

By	"mr_nasty" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secrets & Lies [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I would call this Mike Leigh's masterpiece, only I've seen many films by this brilliant director since screening this unfairly overlooked gem, and I feel ANY of his movies could be categorized as a "masterpiece".

The movie centers on a black woman named Hortense (the multi-talented Marianne Jean-Baptiste) who, knowing she is adopted, is in the process of trying to discover the identity of her birth mother. She finds her real mother, a lower-class white woman named Cynthia Purley (Brenda Blethyn). Cynthia, unaware that Hortense is trying to look her up, has a more immediate problem - a rebellious daughter, Roxanne (the unfairly ignored Claire Rushbrook), who has no respect for her because of Cynthia's many affairs. Cynthia is also trying to reach out to her successful photographer-brother, Morris (perennial Leigh favorite Timothy Spall), but she can't quite get close to him because of the influence of Morris's seemingly cold wife, Monica (Phyllis Logan).

If anyone knows anything of Mike Leigh's style of direction, you'll know why this film is so amazing . . Leigh doesn't simply write a screenplay and tell the actors what to do, he allows them to improvise and develop the characters themselves; the result is that these characters are more than just one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. ALL of these characters are unable to be categorized; they have characteristics that are UNIQUE and that make us care about them. Their complexity is illustrated not only in their actions and by what they say, but by what is NOT done or said in specific instances. ACTIONS of the characters are important (notice, for example, Hortense's inability to react emotionally, even in the family setting, or her reluctance to touch anyone). Another interesting feature is the way Leigh juxtaposes scenes of Morris taking pictures in his photography shop with the events of the story; we even become enamored by the characters that are seen only briefly, for a second, behind Morris's lens, posing for photographs. The cinematography also helps to add to the film's realism; it has a camcorder effect, without being at all shaky or deficient in sound quality.

Finally, the ending: Some may find the ending overly sentimental; I found it remarkably real (and nowhere NEAR as sugary sweet as those found in Hollywood films). Let me only say that it succeeds in that the viewer isn't given total resolution, yet he is given HOPE; these characters CAN work out their problems with each other, and it raises a question that I (as one who is no stranger to family feuding), find very convicting: why, in family situations, do people so often choose to alienate themselves and suffer alone (often even punishing their loved ones, as illustrated by Roxanne and Monica), instead of SHARING their pain and helping one another?

A great film . .worthy of much praise and able to withstand repeated viewings because of the depth of the story and the people involved. Here's hoping Mike Leigh will retain his style of filmmaking for years to come.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful emotional experience, October 14, 2003

By	Eddie Konczal - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secrets & Lies [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film is possibly the most emotionally powerful film I have ever seen. I have never cared more for a group of characters as I did for those in "Secrets and Lies." Director/writer Mike Leigh is famous for giving his actors the outlines of their characters and having them improvise most of their lines. This technique succeeds brilliantly here - you feel as if you're a part of these people's lives. All the actors turn in wonderful performances - Brenda Blethyn as the long-suffering poor single English mother, Marianne Jean Baptiste as a young black girl in search of her natural parents, Claire Rushbrook as Blethyn's rebellious daughter, and Phyllis Logan as Blethyn's well-to-do yet frustrated sister in law. At the center of it all is a monumentally understated performance by Timothy Spall, who as Blethyn's brother attempts to hold everyone's lives together as they face the pain of their ordinary existence. A truly moving film that is one of the best ever.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A triumph, August 1, 2000

By	RolloTomasi (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secrets & Lies [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A mild-mannered, intelligent young black woman (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) tracks down her birth mother, Cynthia Purley (Brenda Blethyn), who just happens to be white. That's only the central plot thread in Mike Leigh's very poignant, very funny, very smart family drama, which received well-deserved Oscar nominations for best picture, best director, best actress, best supporting actress, and best original screenplay. A keenly observed piece set in middle-class and upper middle-class England, "Secrets & Lies" offers such an abundance of riches it's hard to know where to begin.

The plot is fairly simple, though the emotions beneath it aren't. Cynthia is initially afraid to meet the child she gave up years ago, but eventually opens up and discovers that her long-lost daughter, Hortense, is not only a sweet and refined young lady, but the possible source of the love and affection she wants so badly. She receives none of that sort of attention from her other daughter, Roxanne, a bitter, sharp-tongued council worker who, like her secret half-sister, was conceived out of wedlock. Adding to the tension is Cynthia's relationship with her brother, Maurice, and his socially ambitious wife, Monica. The latter is pained by her inability to have a child, and particularly despises Cynthia, who is able to bear children but, in Monica's mind, unable to provide them with the family environment and opportunities that she can. All of these threads converge at an afternoon birthday party, during which all the pent-up secrets and lies explode like a sequence of fireworks. Emotions are laid bare, the past is revealed, and finally, the film hints, the healing process can begin.

A synopsis really doesn't do full justice to the sheer impact of this film. In fact, it's almost insulting--and irrelevant--to discuss plot at all. "Secrets & Lies" isn't about plot in the conventional sense; it's about people. Each character is a complex, fully realized human being, brought to life by superior acting. Brenda Blethyn in particular does a spectacular job, and her Cynthia emerges as one of the most hilarious, endearing, and noble human portraits I've ever seen captured on film. Marianne Jean-Baptiste has a less showy role, but she occupies it with equally genuine warmth and humility. The other performances are consistently excellent, with Timothy Spall (Maurice) and Phyllis Long (Monica), who play tortured but thoroughly sympathetic characters, among the standouts.

The actors are complimented by Leigh's superb direction. Each shot has clearly been carefully thought-out, but the camera is so unobtrusive, so casually observing, that it lends "Secrets & Lies" an almost documentary-like feel. And yet, Leigh's compassion for all his characters leaks through every frame. One of the best scenes in the film takes place in a teashop, with Cynthia and Hortense sharing a first meeting that moves from initial awkwardness to humor and hilarity, to intense sadness and finally to catharsis and relief. The scene is an unbroken, unedited single shot lasting for nearly eight minutes, and Blethyn and Jean-Baptiste sustain the dramatic tension for that long without missing a beat. It is a seamless culmination of acting, writing, and cinematography, and represents (I think) one of the most remarkable and honest shots ever committed to celluloid.

Therein lies the secret to the success of "Secrets & Lies"--every moment in the film feels real. That quality is aided by the fact that, as is the case in all of Leigh's other films, the screenplay is a collaboration between both writer/director and actors. The dialogue never sounds scripted or contrived because most of it has been improvised by the actors themselves; thus, it's no wonder that the characters all but leap off the screen, and that spending time with them is such an engaging and rewarding experience.

Some have criticized the film's overly "happy" ending, claiming that it feels a bit too pat to be real. I disagree. The conclusion, though admittedly more optimistic a resolution than most conflicted families can expect, remains utterly true to the characters' personalities and backgrounds. Actually, Leigh trumps the notion that all films attempting to illuminate the human condition must be overly bleak and pessimistic.

"Secrets & Lies" is not a fast-paced film, and at 152 minutes, it's quite long. It could have gone on for hours and hours as far as I was concerned. Mike Leigh has confirmed my long-held notion that American cinema could definitely learn a thing or two from the sure-and-steady British. Without a doubt, one of the best films, if not the best, of 1996.