Details
Movie Description
Mike Leigh's superlative drama, at once hysterically funny and profoundly sad, examines a wounded contemporary British family. Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a young black optometrist, has just buried her beloved adoptive mother. In her sorrow, she embarks on a search for her birth mother, who turns out to be Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), a white factory worker living a lonely life with her surly daughter Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook). No one in the family, except Cynthia's brother Maurice (Timothy Spall) and his wife Monica (Phyllis Logan), knows that the teenage Cynthia gave up a child for adoption without ever seeing the baby. Hortense contacts Cynthia, and after a heart-wrenching reconciliation, they become best friends. Maurice and Monica, childless but financially secure, are very fond of Roxanne and host a family barbeque to celebrate her twenty-first birthday. Cynthia convinces Hortense to attend the party and meet the family--as a mate from the factory--but during the cake and champagne celebration, the family's secrets and lies emerge in a cathartic, emotional sweep. Leigh's trademark for developing his films' characters and storylines from an intense series of improvisations with the actors themselves reaches its summit with Hortense and Cynthia's reunion in a coffee shop, resulting in another deeply moving portrait of a family at a personal crossroads.
Synopsis
Mike Leigh's superlative drama, at once hysterically funny and profoundly sad, examines a wounded contemporary British family. Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a young black optometrist, has just buried her beloved adoptive mother. In her sorrow, she embarks on a search for her birth mother, who turns out to be Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), a white factory worker living a lonely life with her surly daughter Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook). No one in the family, except Cynthia's brother Maurice (Timothy Spall) and his wife Monica (Phyllis Logan), knows that the teenage Cynthia gave up a child for adoption without ever seeing the baby. Hortense contacts Cynthia, and after a heart-wrenching reconciliation, they become best friends. Maurice and Monica, childless but financially secure, are very fond of Roxanne and host a family barbeque to celebrate her twenty-first birthday. Cynthia convinces Hortense to attend the party and meet the family--as a mate from the factory--but during the cake and champagne celebration, the family's secrets and lies emerge in a cathartic, emotional sweep. Leigh’s trademark for developing his films’ characters and storylines from an intense series of improvisations with the actors themselves reaches its summit with Hortense and Cynthia’s reunion in a coffee shop, resulting in another deeply moving portrait of a family at a personal crossroads.
Film Notes
Theatrical release in the U.S.: September 27, 1996.
The film was shot entirely on location in and around London, and was edited on film.
Brenda Blethyn (Cynthia) was unaware of fellow actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste's (Hortense) race until filming the scene at the train station when they meet in-person for the first time. The actress was genuinely surprised in meeting her black daughter.
Mike Leigh's method of preparing actors for his films includes several months of rehearsal and improvisation.
The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.
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Industry Reviews
"...A finely observed, deeply felt work..."
Variety - Derek Elley (05/13/1996)
"...Remarkable, truthful and emotional..."
Los Angeles Times - Kenneth Turan
"Moment after moment, scene after scene, SECRETS & LIES unfolds with the fascination of eavesdropping..."
Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert (10/25/1996)
"...SECRETS & LIES is a powerful, complex and at times highly amusing drama..."
Total Film - Simon Brew (07/01/2000)
"LIES builds to a climactic family gathering with profound cathartic powers."
USA Today - Mike Clark (02/04/2005)
"Leigh's aesthetically pared-down, thickly improvisational stylings allow his cast to revel in the rich complexities of their familial confrontations..."
Premiere - Premiere Staff (03/01/2005)
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