October 24–31, 1996

movie shorts

SECRETS & LIES

Mike LeighsSecrets & Lies is about just that, the ways that secrets and lies keep people apart. A black optometrist (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) discovers that her birth mother is Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), a white factory worker who has becomeestranged from her more successful brother, a commercial photographer (Timothy Spall). The character details are laid out meticulously, in barely cast glances, unspoken offenses and unraveling emotions, culminating in an inevitable, soap-operaticturning point that lets loose a barrage of weeping and raging, each character having his or her solo, like youre watching a bands improv performance. This makes sense in the universe Leighs film establishes people move in and out of one anothersemotional spheres, desperate to connect but deathly afraid, knowing but not knowing each other at the same time.

— Cindy Fuchs

(Ritz Five; Ritz 12)