After years of working in British television, and making four
impressive features that included "Bleak Moments" (1971) and "Naked"
(1993), Mike Leigh firmly established himself internationally as
Britain's version of John Cassavetes with a candid film of untold
emotional depth and narrative complexity. Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays
Hortense Cumberbatch, a twenty-something black optometrist living in
London, who traces her family tree after the death of her adoptive
mother only to discover that her biological mother is a working class
white woman named Cynthia Purley (Brenda Blethyn). Leigh spent many
months of preparation with his actors doing improvisation workshops in
order to create a script that carries a super-natural sense of realism
and elemental truth. Its centerpiece is an unbroken 8-minute shot of
Hortense and Cynthia meeting in an empty restaurant for tea where walls
of defenses gradually come crumbling down as the truth of their
relationship is revealed. Every performance from Leigh's brilliant
ensemble of actors, that include Timothy Spall and Phyllis Logan, is a
thing of rare dramatic authenticity. Blethyn and Jean-Baptiste are
extraordinary in their restraint, humor, and spontenaity. The film's
also unbroken climatic social scene elevates its primordial familial
fabric into an ethereal tapestry where every ancient thread of untruth
is pulled out along with other lies that have attached themselves over
the years. Much more than just a touching story of the ties that bind
humanity and the way we reveal ourselves, "Secrets & Lies" (1996)
is a staggering work of cinematic genius. It is truly a perfect film.
