Secrets & Lies
SECRETS & LIES (15)
D: Mike Leigh
CiBy 2000/Thin Man (Simon Channing-Williams)
UK 1996
142 mins
Drama
W: Mike Leigh
DP: Dick Pope
Ed: John Gregory
Mus: Andrew Dickson
Timothy Spall (Maurice), Brenda Blethyn
(Cynthia), Phyllis Logan (Monica), Claire Rushbrook (Roxanne), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hortense), Elizabeth Berrington (Jane)
An incredibly well-acted soap opera of a British working class
family. A successful black woman hopes to find her biological mother, and discovers that she is meek, unmarried white factory worker. Meanwhile, other members of the family have their own
skeletons in the closet.
The strengths of this film lie in the fine work of the
ensemble cast, particularly Brenda Blethyn. Mike Leigh's filmmaking style isn't the most audience friendly, from a mainstream perspective at least, but this is easily the finest of his works.
Fine British cinema.
8/10
