Secrets & Lies [IMPORT]

Rating:
Summary: Fun for boys and girls
Review: Great enjoyable movie that will keep BOTH you and your girlfriend and any relatives etc hanging around very happy. This is a good movie, check it out.

Rating:
Summary: Keep This Secret
Review: Imagine Buffy and Jodie as foul-mouthed, spiteful white trash and you get the picture of this family affair from hell.

If you want someone to blame, see Mike Leigh. The British writer and director has been making ugly, challenging, and consistently winning dramas for twenty-five years, and it's about time he gained some popular attention. Here it's Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) who gets Leigh's star treatment. She's a black optometrist in search of her biological mommy who, it turns out, is a comical cockney white woman named Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn).

With more courage than I have, Hortense shares coffee with the poor, disheveled woman. This scene is a gem of slow-burning recognition and pain, as Cynthia realizes that the successful black woman before her is indeed her child. The two then meet again and develop a fast friendship.

Meanwhile Cyn's chubby brother--a gentle soul named Maurice (Timothy Spall)--is busy keeping his photography studio solvent. Too bad he can't do the same for his family (Do these people belong on Jerry Springer, or what?).

Leigh makes the ordinary transcendent. The picture-perfect moments Maurice captures on film is the metaphor Leigh splendidly uses to make us aware of the life lived between the camera clicks--life that often forces us to hide the Secrets and Lies buried within our own hearts.

Rating:
Summary: Simply excellent...characters brought to life
Review: Magnificient acting from all casts. Its a must see for any fan of Mike Leigh. A simple story line but the actors have managed to bring out the best from their individual character. My favorite character is Uncle Maurice who was able to relate to many day to day characters. Whats special about Mike Leigh is his movies can relate to the people on the street.

Rating:
Summary: Honest Character Study!
Review: This fascinating, extremely entertaining, emotionally wrenching slice of life is easily amongst the best films of the 90's. Superb acting from everyone involved. Brenda Blethyn, Maryanne Jean-Baptiste and Timothy Spall are standouts. Mike Leigh is a genis when it comes to portraying human emotions on screen, he does it with such easiness and honesty that you feel like 'one of the family'. Great story with wonderful dialogue. Mike Leigh uses 'real' actors and you can tell that by the length of every scene. A raw and emotional experience. One of the best movies of 1996. Highly recommended. From a scale of 1-10 I give this movie a 9!

Rating:
Summary: Making No Secret of My Opinion of This FIlm
Review: When black, middle-class optometrist Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) loses her adopted-mother she is devestated but it fuels her even more to find her birth-mother and see how she is living. Her birth mother is, of course, Brenda Blethyn's Cynthia a white factory worker with a history of failed relationships, a second daughter (Claire Rushbrook) who despises her and a snobby sister-in-law (Phyllis Logan) who, it seems, manipulates her husband (Timothy Spall) against Cynthia. But it is not just Hortense and Cynthia who have a family secret....

Well-deserving all it's awards and nominations, this film really is full of truth, perception, advice and fine acting. I confess it took me a while to get into but I found it well worth the patience and it is one of those thought-provoking films that will leave a lasting impression.

Rating:
Summary: Easily one of the best films of the 90's...
Review: The performance given by Timothy Spall in this film is probably the best I ever seen in any film. His character is so real and believable it's often hard to be aware that you're not watching a documentary! In fact the whole film is like watching life as it happens out of your window. All the actors give brilliant performances, and the story is very moving. One of my Top 5 all-time favourite films...

Rating:
Summary: Secrets & Lies
Review: I found this to be a well-executed movie. In each scene, the viewer is exposed to more and more of the characters' personalities. This movie makes you think. We're not really told what happened to "Cynthia" - how she ended up giving birth to a black baby. In the scene at the coffee shop, she has a flash-back and realizes what had happened to her when she was 16 years old. She's too ashamed to tell her daughter about her biological father.

Rating:
Summary: It should of won alot of oscars!
Review: This movie was brilliantly acted and is very emotional.Brenda Blethyn definitley should of won Best Actress i am disappointd that she didn't.All the other actors i did not recognize but they definitley should be for there great performance.This movie can make you sympathize with people that led bad lives(Brenda Blethyn is the main one at mind)It's hard to believe that a woman can be so sweet with a daughter that is so bitchy!There isn't really anything else to say than you really need to see this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: Just watched this movie with my Fiance on Sunday night. The funny thing was that at first my Fiance kept on saying how boring the movie was. But by the first 20 minutes or so, he was engrossed. At the end of the movie he had to admit that it was an excellent film - funny with very touching moments throughout. A must see!

Rating:
Summary: Should have won tons of Oscars
Review: This movie is amazing and I STILL can't believe Brenda Blethyn didn't win Best Actress! It also should have won Best Picture, and a nomination for Timothy Spall. I can't say enough great things about this movie, but if you want to see an adult drama about real people, "Secrets & Lies" is unsurpassed.