A young black woman in search of her white biological mother gives Leigh’s heartwrenching if occasionally amusing film the kind of narrative and thematic gravitas rarely experienced in such stories about families in crisis, featuring an all-timer performance by Brenda Blethyn.
Review #2,963
Dir. Mike Leigh
1996 | UK | Drama, Comedy | 142min | 1.85:1 | English
Not rated – likely to be NC16 for some coarse language
Cast: Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook
Plot: Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother – a lonely white factory worker living in poverty in East London.
Awards: Won Palme d’Or, Best Actress & Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (Cannes); Nom. for 5 Oscars – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Leading Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay
International Sales: MK2
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Working Class; Biological Parent/Child; Family Dynamics
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse
Viewed: Criterion Blu-ray
Spoilers: No
Believe it or not, this is only my second Mike Leigh film after Mr. Turner (2014), which I had seen in theatres more than a decade ago. I can’t wait to explore more of this British master’s body of work, but for now, we have here in Secrets & Lies one of his very best according to many critics.
The Cannes Palme d’Or winner also landed Brenda Blethyn the Best Actress award. She is phenomenal and gives us one of the most heartbreaking performances I have ever seen in Cynthia, a white working-class single mother to a road-sweeping daughter who is turning 21.
They hate each other’s guts but have to live with each other’s whims and fancies. Timothy Spall plays Cynthia’s younger brother, Maurice, who is at odds with his wife, though they live quite comfortably in a more middle-class neighbourhood.
Leigh organically builds the volatility—but also empathy—to dramatic levels as the story sees a young black woman, Hortense, (Marianne Jean-Baptise, who returns in Leigh’s latest Hard Truths) hoping to find her true biological mother, who is, lo and behold, Cynthia.
“We’re all in pain. Why can’t we share our pain?”
That is the whole relational setup to an incredible film that deals with not just families in crisis but the nature of ‘seeing’ people for who they really are—lonely, misunderstood and despairing souls hoping for some ray of goodness to befall them, but not before weathering a storm of their lives.
The fact that Hortense is an optometrist and Maurice a portrait photographer is no surprise, amplifying this idea of truly seeing one another—clearly, and preferably with smiles.
Cynthia sees things most clearly after acquainting with Hortense in arguably the film’s most famous long take, shot in a diner as Blethyn wrenchingly pours her heart out.
Many would have heard of Leigh’s unorthodox process of working with actors, improvising and shaping characters one-on-one with lengthy rehearsals. We see this approach reaching some kind of zenith in Secrets & Lies.
Grade: A
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 
[…] Jean-Baptiste is back with Leigh since Secrets & Lies (1996), this time playing a character so acrid and pungent that it will surely make viewers want to […]
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