erwinoz Review of Secrets & Lies

Secrets & Lies (1996)

Story of people with a lot of shortcomings, still being great people.

[9/10 · 24 August 2004]

I truly love this film. The story is simple. A woman goes to look for her biological mother and finds her. After some hesitations the daughter is being introduced to the rest of the family. After the shock it all comes down perfectly. The great thing about the movie is that like in most English movies there are just ordinary people in it, with many shortcomings, but you will start to feel love for them anyway. Because they are so much themselves. There are some very difficult matters in the movie that could have easily lead to an unhappy ending. But although the mother is white and the daughter is black and probably the result of a rape and although the relationship between the other daughter and the mother is far from perfect so the warm welcome for the new daughter must have brought strong feelings of jealousy, it all comes down naturally. As it should. Because life is too short to fill it with bad feelings. And the movie learns that it is easy to except other peoples shortcomings ones you excepted your own.