Secrets and Lies

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A north London family, atomised by history, plans to meet up for Roxanne's 21st. Meanwhile, Hortense searches the public records for her mother's identity. Now and again a British film comes along which speaks to its generation in terms clear and urgent.

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Review by Alex Davidson on 12th May 2004

Unusually for a Mike Leigh film, Secrets and Lies has a dramatic plot full of revelations and confessions, as it tells the story of Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a middle-class black woman who, after her adoptive mother’s death, decides to track down her birth mother. She discovers that her parent is Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), a working-class white mother of a stroppy teenager (Claire Rushbrook). The film follows the developing relationship between these two very different women, and the frictions of the other family members, including her well-meaning brother (Timothy Spall).

Secrets and Lies is Leigh’s most affectionate work; his other films are packed with unpleasant characters, and those these works can be very funny, they rarely take time to establish any depth behind the caricatures, and the audience seldom cares about their plight (this is not a criticism of Leigh: Abigail’s Party would not have worked had the audience empathised with the obnoxious hostess ). Although some of the characters in Secrets and Lies occasionally verge on the grotesque (such as Cynthia, who breaks down into sobs easily, and Monica, whose obsession with neatness in her house borders on the neurotic), the script allows us to see the other side of these characters’ personae.

The best scenes are those in which Leigh just lets a static camera roll on the action. The exchange between Blethyn and Jean-Baptiste in the coffee shop is remarkable: the scene is shot in one long take, and registers all the emotions the characters feel as Cynthia realizes that Hortense is indeed her daughter. There is also a typical Leigh scene where a family barbeque where people discuss serious matters whilst simultaneously other diners utter banalities of the “pass the butter” variety, creating a wonderful, overlapping blend of conversations.

The film is also very funny, featuring many set-pieces based on the comedy of misunderstanding and the malapropisms of Cynthia. The latter’s continual embarrassment of her other daughter is also very funny; such as the scene where Blethyn tries to advise her other daughter on contraception.

The film won the Palme d’Or and the Best Actress award (for Blethyn) at the Cannes Film Festival, and deservedly so; this is probably the best British film of the 1990s.

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This film is part of the following Film Collections

Best London-Set Films

Including: 10 Rillington Place, 28 Days Later, 84 Charing Cross Road, 9 Songs, Alfie (1965), An American Werewolf In London, Betjemans London, Blow-up, Bullet Boy, Charlie Chan - In London.

Best of British

Including: A Fish Called Wanda, A Matter of Life and Death , A Room With A View, Blow-up, Brazil, Brief Encounter (Lean, 1945), Brighton Rock, Caravaggio, Dont Look Now, Get Carter.

Palme D'Or Winners

Including: All That Jazz, Apocalypse Now Redux, Blow-up, Brief Encounter (Lean, 1945), Dancer in The Dark, Elephant, Kagemusha, La Dolce Vita, Marty, MASH.

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