Secrets and Lies
There are many movies that include references to adoption, or that bring to mind the emotion of our own individual experiences, but not many I would buy for my video library.
A notable exception is director Mike Leigh's "Secrets and Lies".
This 1996 movie won British actress Brenda Blethyn the Best Actress award in Cannes, and a nomination for the 1997 Oscar.
For the adoption community, the phrase "secrets and lies" is immediately identifiable as the adoption experience. Sealed records, shame, guilt, insecurities, and fear are brought to mind, depending on how each of us has been affected. But the secrets and lies of this remarkable film go far beyond and take us into the very real - and very human - failure to communicate that marks so many family relationships, adoptive and not.
Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a successful young black woman, decides to search for her birthmother after her mother's death. She contacts a social worker and receives her adoption file. She seeks out and is reconnected with her white birth mother, Cynthia (Blethyn) who is living in a world apart, buried in the past and only vaguely connected to the present. The uncovering of the adoption is just the beginning of the secrets and lies that have kept family members distanced from one another for years.
Director Leigh uses unusual film effects and techniques. The dialogue was largely unscripted and depended on the actors' abilities to free-fall in real life interactions, which they did with Oscar-caliber performances. Cynthia had never seen the baby she placed for adoption; she didn't know Hortense was black, and when they finally meet, Leigh captures the emotion of the moment in several minutes of almost no action at all; just the two faces.
The film is not without humor - belly laughs at times - as Cynthia's brother Maurice (Timothy Spall) does his best to try to bring the family together. But I also found myself laughing in nervous reaction to situations that hit close to home in my own experience.
The only adjective that describes this movie for me is "real." This has nothing to do with the adoption-related content. The characterizations are so true-to-life that I felt as though I were present in each living room, in each restaurant, in the social worker's office.
The film is slow to develop the characters, but this is to ultimate advantage since there are so many dynamics at work. Search, reunion, interracial liaisons, and damaged family relationships are all part and parcel of "Secrets & Lies".
The movie was received with great acclaim and rave reviews by both those with no connection to adoption issues, and by those deeply involved in the adoption experience. It should not be missed.
Director: Mike Leigh
Starring: Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Timothy Spall, Claire Rushbrook, Phyllis Logan
Rating: R
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