Secrets
and Lies (1996)
This is a wonderful little gem that might have slipped
into obscurity if the Academy members didn't have to
look so hard for candidates for Best Actress. Several
nominations ended up going to the piece, including Best
Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress
and Best Original Screenplay. It won none, of course,
but it did help to make the general public aware of
the film.
Clips from the film, of course, were featured on the
Awards' telecast. The plot seemed rather typical soap
fodder: A young black woman looks for her adopted mom
and finds her to be a white woman. But the clips alone,
just seconds of the film, were enough to show us that
there was more at work here. The actresses were so charming
in their roles that the scenes literally jumped from
the screen. One was immediately hooked.
In my first trip to the video store in quite some
months, I saw that it was available and immediately
grabbed the film. It was the best film I had seen in
ages. Small and quiet, the film is a marvel. Director
Mike Leigh has crafted a multi- layered, mega-dimensional
piece that goes much deeper than the mere synopsis would
indicate.
The three most remarkable pieces of acting come from
Timothy Spall as the long suffering Maurice (pronounced
"Morris"), Brenda Blythen as the rather ditzy Cynthia
and Marianne Jean- Baptiste as the soft spoken Hortense.
The females garnered Best Actress and Best Supporting
Actress nods respectively. Spall, of course, is deserving
as well, but the Actors category was filled with Hollywood
names. Spall remains a steadfast supporter of all the
women in his life throughout the film and Leigh, who
also scripted here, gives him the films most wonderful
soliloquy. Blythen and Jean-Baptiste, meanwhile, play
such opposites, that it is marvellous to see them together,
even though Leigh's unhurried pace makes us wait almost
an hour for that moment. Blythen is simply marvellous
as sort of a sweet yet silly middle aged, lower class
factory worker. We get to know her as well as Jean-
Baptiste on their own terms before Leigh brings them
together. The younger actress is more quiet in her character
but affects us just as much. What is remarkable about
the characters, and Leigh's script, is that we get to
see a rather big picture before the film really begins
to evolve. Finally, when the two worlds of the film
meld, we see that it is the mother, not the daughter,
who really needs the coming together that the plot promises.
It is she who will really gain the most.
Leigh does so many wonderful things here that one cannot
really quibble over his small missteps. The best part
of the film is the "flavour" Leigh gives the piece by
showing us Spall at his job. His character is a portrait
photographer and Leigh lets us sit in on some of the
more humorous moments of several sittings. It gives
us several moments of levity in the film. We get to
see Spall makes his subjects comfortable and evokes
smiles from them. This is really utilized for a stunning
moment in the film's climax where Spall says the killer
line "i've spent my whole life trying to make other
people happy." He has not only suffered to do this in
his home life but his professional life as well. It's
a captivating moment on screen.
Leigh also includes a couple of unnecessary scenes
which make the film a little long in the center, but
who cares. He includes a scene with Spall and a former
business partner that really has nothing to do with
the plot. My only guess is that he is trying to show
Spall as a fair person -but also let us know that he
is not a doormat.
Also of note in the cast are Phyllis Logan as Spall's
wife, who has a wonderful subplot all her own; Claire
Rushnrook as Blythen's white daughter Roxanne, who plays
a great little pain in the arse, Elizabeth Berrington
as Spall's assistant Jane; Lee Ross as Roxanne's working
class boyfriend Paul and Leslie Manville as a rather
quirky yet competent social worker. The plot could have
several of the family upset over the revelation of a
black daughter to a lower class white mum, and Ross'
seems the most likely candidate to be used in this capacity.
But, wisely, Leigh simply doesn't go there. It makes
the film all that much more interesting when Leigh opts
to go for more complex, more deep issues.
Leigh seasons the film with wonderful yet quiet score
music from Andrew Dickson. His sombre pieces, evolved
from chamber music perfectly punctuates the score. In
a lot of ways, it reminds one of how Hal Hartley uses
music in his films. Also of note behind the scenes is
the work of Maria Price who costumes the characters
quite nicely, giving Blythen some rather humorous yet
appropriate outfits to wear.
"Secrets and Lies" is a great film. Complex and captivating,
it is so much more than what it could be. Leigh takes
what normally would be simply a pedestrian plot yield
and fastens a heartwarming and bittersweet plot that
makes us cry and makes us smile. That is still something
special.
(Review written in 1997)
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