Hot of the trail of watching and reviewing "The Spirit of '45", a Ken Loach "documentary" about the "benefits" of post world war 2 democratic socialism in Britain, reviewing Leigh's "Secrets & Lies" from '96 would be quite fitting.
A great point that is never dwelled too much on regarding the welfare state, is how much it all has to do with pleasing women. And strangely enough, research shows, women has never been more unhappy and dissatisfied as they are now, when they are practically handed everything they want from the government and then some - paid by for men, mind you. At the same time, and in this movie also, the men are either pretty goofy, or some psychopathic bad-boy only used for insemination of wannabe single mothers.
When a woman's mother dies, the truth about her heritage is revealed to her. She finds out who her biological mother is and then decides to get in contact with her. Why exactly she wants that, is not too clear, which is a reemerging trait of all the female characters in the story. It is at times difficult to figure out their incentives from what they say, which is also a part of the theme of the movie, at least half of it is "lies".
The (real) mother Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is a run of the mill poor single mother, who is very naive and emotionally shallow. Even if she tries to be engaged in her (other) daughter's life, she have a hard time being anything but annoyingly clingy and nagging. Her daughter, who works as a road cleaner for the government, is hooked in her already pretty pathetic life by her dysfunctional mother.
Cynthia's brother is a wedding photographer and his wife and Cynthia have never got along very well. it seems they are all pretty curled up in a knot, emotionally. So everyday life feels superficial and somewhat controlling, not to scratch the surface of the "secrets and lies" that they probably all have a feeling are there.
Just after a row with her "present" daughter, Cynthia's "new" daughter calls her on the phone. At first she is bewildered about the call but then slowly the truth of the situation emerges from years of rejection. The daughter she had a a young teenager with a shitty black man, has returned to haunt her .. or at least, that is what she thinks at first. The curiosity gets her and she eventually meets with her long lost daughter, now a full grown, well off, independent, black woman.
This will eventually set the ball rolling and the secrets and lies in the dysfunctional family, all more or less a result of Cynthia's shitty decisions all through her life, fuelled by the welfare state (my interpretation). The theme of the movie in my opinion is the morality, that secrets and lies, to avoid confronting your children and your family, will inevitably come back to haunt you anyway so you might just face it when it happens. A weakness of the story though is that it has to have a happy ending where Cynthia now have two daughters and all seem to be jolly great. I don't believe that could be the case in any real life situation. A dysfunctional family cannot possible heal by adding a new member, that was actually a reason for some of the lies. Unless you start a new set of lies ... which might actually be a twist, if not a bit unlikely in the otherwise pretty straight forward story telling of Leigh's
This movie is completely owned by Blethyn who portrays Cynthia. She is simply outstandingly good in the way she is able to put on this role as if she is Cynthia. She absolutely deserves the acclaim she got back in the day winning several prizes for the performance. It is one of the best character acting performances ever caught on film. Particularly the first meeting in the coffee shop, when she finally realises that the past has caught up with her lies. The scene is continued without any cuts (as far as I could see) and she nails it like a boss. Hortense, as her new daughter is called, is played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste and it is obvious to me that she feels pretty much that her role is completely overshadowed by Blethyn who just keeps going and going as if it was caught on a real life recording.
After the emotional turmoil in Cynthia's life, we get a bit around in the other family structure. they are fleshed out a bit more than in the first act, which really helps to set up the final coming apart of the "secrets and lies" at the barbecue birthday party, where Cynthia brings Hortense along. This pivotal scene is very claustrophobic in a way that really makes you feel that you are no longer a somewhat distant onlooker but a part of this family when it starts to unravel. This is wisely not made in one continuous shot as a couple of times earlier. That helps settle all the characters and get under their skin as their true personality is revealed.
Leigh finds a good balance between the "polite" smalltalk and the emotional bombs that suddenly arrives. It helps to further contrast the glossing over of the hidden truths that no one wants to be responsible for revealing and it is only when an outsider arrives that the coating crackles.
in fact the only one that seems to be keeping her cool and stay in balance is Hortense, who presumably on paper, should be the one who was most upset. But her feelings absolutely pales in comparison to the tsunami of stored up frustrations she unleashes by "knocking" on the door.
The characters are not too ridiculous even if a few times I thought they went a bit close to looking like a deliberate freakshow. But the point went home I think and it stayed within the confines of a serious movie. This is a fine line to tread and Leigh manages it very well. if the characters look too weird or strange the viewer will disconnect from them or feel more alienated and unable to recognise either themselves or someone else in their life that the characters can remind them of. The movie is a bit of a slow starter, but when shit starts to happen, boy does it take off. the second act is pretty mind-blowing and the moment of truth is the third act is almost equally good and a highly emotional moment where the tears can be hard to hold back. This movie gets my highest recommandations.
10/10
