As with many great filmmakers, Mike Leigh’s filmography is an interesting one to navigate. It is hard to categorically point to a single one as his best work, but Secrets & Lies is a strong contender. It is likely his most accessible, along with Vera Drake, which is more mainstream and probably less of a reliable indicator of whether one might enjoy Leigh’s style.
Released in 1996 to great acclaim, Secrets & Lies won the Palme D’Or and surprisingly garnered five Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress). As he has done before and since, Leigh follows different working class families in the UK and weaves their stories together. There is Maurice (Timothy Spall), a photographer stuck in an unhappy marriage. His sister Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is a single mother working at a cardboard box factory and raising a teenage girl who hates her. Then there is Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a single optometrist in her late twenties whose adopted mother has just died, and she decides to seek out her birth parents. The fact that Hortense is black means the film tackles the issue of race in a way that Leigh has not otherwise had to do, but it has held up remarkably well.
Like a theatre company, Leigh has a rotating troupe of actors that he uses regularly, and the ensemble cast here is spellbinding. When you have Lesley Manville and Ruth Sheen in bit part cameos, that’s saying something. There is not a single weak link in the cast, though many of them put on quite understated performances as the film starts out. Leigh has a special relationship and process with his actors – famously, he often starts with a barebones script or no script at all, and through months of improvisation and rehearsals, fleshes out the story and characters in an intense and collaborative process with the actors.
Leigh’s films always maintain the utmost level of reality and groundedness, and despite the long preparation process, he’s not averse to go to certain lengths to maintain authenticity. There is a scene when Hortense finally meets her birth mother, but the actor who plays her birth mother was not told what she looks like, so her reaction was completely genuine. Hortense’s storyline, in particular, is much more quiet and pensive than the others at first, with the music and images creating much more of a mood piece.
Maurice’s photography sessions are fascinating too – he’s always trying to capture people at their best moments, and trying to get them to smile or be happy, even when they aren’t. It’s a trait of his that persists outside of the workplace as well. Timothy Spall plays this character with so much empathy that it almost hurts. Cynthia, on the other hand, has the loudest part as the hysterical mother who can’t get her shit together. All of the characters are facing different types of crises, and it feels like they are reaching the breaking point, whether it is their relationships, family, finances, or identity. Isn’t that what real life usually feels like?
The first act is a slow burn, but once the plot begins to pick up, the film quickly gains momentum. Leigh often sets up a party or gathering that serves as the height of the film, and this one is no different. We can see it coming from a mile away, but it is still completely unpredictable. We know that something will happen, but we just don’t know what. At the barbecue, there is a 7 minute long take that is absolutely breathtaking. Unlike all the Goodfellas wannabes among the myriad oners these days, this one is so original because the camera never moves even while all the actors are hustling and bustling about. It is an unbelievable accomplishment in mise-en-scène and especially in the blocking. You feel like you are right there sitting down with them, bursting with tension and discomfort the entire time.
Although the film slowly ratchets up the intensity, the third act is what will remain in the memory long after the other details have faded. Apart from the aforementioned long take, every scene, every shot, and every choice is perfectly absorbing. The painful awkwardness, the hilarious moments, and the final catharsis – everything works. As the title suggests, all of the characters have been keeping secrets and lying to each other, and the climax is an explosion of emotions. As these secrets are revealed, we see each of them more clearly, like a fuzzy TV screen that finally has been fixed to have a sharp color contrast in high definition. They can finally see each other clearly too, and the only question is what to do next.
Secrets & Lies is a film about relationships and family, and our deep longing for those things. Being alone is lonely, but being in relationships can become toxic and full of deceit and guilt, and wounds can scab over in time even if they don’t fully heal, but they are always there. One of the most meaningful and hopeful lines of the film occurs at the very end, when one of the characters says “Better to tell the truth, innit? That way, nobody gets hurt.” Secrets & Lies is a technical masterclass in acting and directing, but it is also raw and emotional – it’ll have you squirming, groaning, laughing, and cringing. Even if the characters are not telling the truth, there is truth in their performances and their stories.
Now streaming on the Criterion Channel.
