Amazon.com video review:
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
