SECRETS & LIES (1996)

Director: Mike Leigh

Writers: Mike Leigh

Stars: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan

Runtime: 136 minutes

PLOT: A successful black woman discovers that her birth mother is a lower-class white woman, but the woman denies it. As emotions run high, everyone's secrets are exposed.

REVIEW: It would be easy, but wrong, to describe the plot of "Secrets & Lies" as being about an adopted black woman in London who seeks out her natural birth mother, discovers the woman is white, and arranges to meet her. That would be wrong because it sidesteps the real subject of the film, which is that the mother and her family have been all but destroyed by secrets and lies. The young black woman is the catalyst to change that situation, yes, but her life was fine before the action starts and will continue on an even keel afterward. Much of the film is devoted to the domestic life of Maurice and Monica. He is a photographer specializing in wedding pictures; she is a loving woman whose life becomes unbearable for herself and her husband every 28 days.
Given the deep waters it dives into, "Secrets & Lies" is a good deal funnier and more entertaining than we have any right to expect. Hilarious and gruelling by turn, Secrets & Lies proves that a film can have a big heart and a harsh edge, and that the British suburban landscape at its most mundane is a fascinating terrain that our cinema has hardly begun to explore.

Reviewed by S.M. Intisab Shahriyar