'This Is The Life Ain't It' (Secrets & Lies (DVD))

Member Name: Cwej1

Product:	Secrets & Lies (DVD)
Date:	21/02/02 (111 review reads)
Rating:

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As the end of Secrets & Lies arrives, Cynthia speaks the words 'This is the life ain't it'. They sum up exactly what I feel for this exquisite, near-perfect, gem of a movie. I know for a fact that in my family there have been a number of secrets and lies told between family members. And I know for a fact that in the majority of families there are secrets and lies, which when briefly explained might seem trivial to an outsider - but when looked at in minute detail are fundamentally important to the development of people's lives. In Mike Leigh's 'Secrets And Lies', the viewer is thrown into the life of one family and is given that minute detail to really make us understand what life is all about.

Running to a trying 156 minutes and with a painstakingly slow plot development, this film will admittedly not be everyone's cup of tea. My dad watched it and instantly said words along the lines of 'crap' to which I opened my mouth, gobsmacked, at his total lack of empathy for the characters in this film. To me, when I first saw 'Secrets And Lies', I assumed that everyone would see the beauty in the messages that this film conveys and also enjoy it as much as I did. In saying this, I am basically warning you that even though this review will say very little negative about this film, I just want to make it clear that it is DEFINITELY not one for people who like their action fast-paced.

That is not to say there is a lack of plot. On the contrary, the number of different subplots in this film make it intensely complex. The main plot really revolves around Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a middle-class black optometrist, who at 26, having lost both her adoptive parents to natural causes seeks out her birth mother, Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn). Think the total opposite of Hortense and you pretty much have Cynthia - working-class, white and without any sense of sophistication whatsoever. Cynthia lives with her 20-year
-old aggressive and rude daughter, Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook). Throw into the equation Cynthia's hard-working brother, Maurice (Timothy Spall), and his pedantic and obsessive wife, Monica (Phyllis Logan) and you pretty much have the main five characters... and as the film progresses we learn pretty in-depth histories of all five, resulting in a climactic 21st birthday party for Roxanne in which all the secrets and lies that the family hide are exposed finally in dramatic fashion...

Mike Leigh has concocted what is, in effect, a very simple story but brought it to an incredibly powerful point. His skill is in making his audience empathise totally with every little move that each character makes. Every word that is spoken by EVERY character (even the minor ones) seems totally perfect, which is incredible considering the majority of the film was unscripted and improvised, to a point.

The cast is possibly the finest ensemble cast I have ever seen in a film, bar none. I cannot single one person out as being any better than the rest of the cast, though obviously the critics felt that Brenda Blethyn's performance as the neurotic, uncontrollable Cynthia was worthy of Best Actress at Cannes and the BAFTAs not to mention an Oscar nomination. At times her performance tries on the audience's patience, however you get the feeling that this is because the character herself is more than a little irritating and Blethyn's performance is faultless.

In complete contrast, Jean-Baptiste plays an almost opposite character in Hortense. Even at the most dramatic of moments, her performance remains calm and collected - this is not a criticism of Jean-Baptiste's acting abilities, rather the opposite. Her ability not to resort to hysterics is admirable and is a quality which I would certainly welcome more from actors and actresses worldwide.

The highlight of these two ladies performance surely comes in the revealing scene in which they m
eet for the first time in a cafe and sit side-by-side, not daring to look at each other. Blethyn could be accused of over-acting; Jean-Baptiste of under-acting... but the end result is a perfect scene.

Timothy Spall's likeable and dependable Maurice is beautifully crafted and in the scene in the photographers' studio where he meets his old friend Stuart (Ron Cook) we really understand his skill at resolving situations, which makes his explosion in the final scene all the more upsetting.

In the role of his wife, Monica, is Phyllis Logan. Instantly easy to dislike, Mike Leigh and Phyllis Logan have managed to create a much deeper character than what Monica appears to be in the first half of the film and her final pitiful state and ultimately, jealousy of Cynthia, is perfectly pinpointed by Logan.

Claire Rushbrook's Roxanne is interesting in that she gives many amusing moments, but also some of the most aggressive moments in the film. We laugh at her overt aggression early on in the film - but as it goes on, her foul-mouth and unnecessary anger are very effective in disestablishing the harmony of the group. Rushbrook's expert portrayal is certainly under-acknowledged by critics in my eyes.

Fundamentally, the messages in the film are conveyed by an extremely well executed combination of good writing, direction and acting - and there are too many messages to fully describe them all. However, I will attempt to mention at least a couple...

One is the totally unspoken but totally evident issue of race. Both Cynthia and Hortense's initial reactions to finding out that the other is not of the same race could be interpreted as racist - 'There must be some mistake' both of them say. Once the initial shock is over, race is never mentioned again (apart from when Cynthia asks Hortense if she only has black boyfriends). However, there are moments where the issue of race is certainly a subtext to what has been
said. For example, when Roxanne asks Maurice if he'd always known, his response is 'I always thought she had a boy'. In reality, the sentence Maurice is saying 'I always thought she had a white child'. Watch it carefully and you'll see what I mean if you didn't pick up on it the first time. There are a couple of other examples dotted around the film and in this respect the film is certainly a social comment on race - but not only that. It also comments on social position... the struggle between Monica and Cynthia is fascinating.

Another message is not necessarily one for life, but is about the characters in the film only. It is about unhappiness. Not one of the characters is happy. Hortense has been unhappy since her adoptive parents died; Cynthia has been unhappy for 21 odd years; Roxanne seeks happiness in her relationship with Paul, but rarely seems happy; and Maurice and Monica's marriage is incredibly unhappy despite the facade of their perfect house (which can be easily compared to Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening's equally well-written husband and wife duo, Lester and Carolyn, in 'American Beauty'). The most interesting scenario here though is very early on in the film where it is clear that Maurice is not making Monica happy - but then this is interspersed with scenes of him trying to make people smile at his photograph studio. Finally, we see a warring couple having their photo taken, who force a smile for the camera. This is clearly an analogy of Maurice and Monica's marriage.

What is truly amazing about this film is that, no matter how many times you watch it, you learn a little bit more about the characters each time. There are very few films where I could write a whole review and base it nearly completely on the characters and not about the plot, but in this film the characters are the only really important factor - the plot, pretty much, comes second place.

I've probably bore
d all and sundry with this review, but this film truly means a lot to me and I wanted to get a lot of my thoughts out in this! Anyone who is interested in character driven drama will love this film and want to watch it time and time again.

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