Secrets and lies are very dangerous things.
I find it crazy that when people keep secrets and tell lies they often think they're protecting the people they're deceiving. They may even insist that it's kinder to keep people in the dark than tell them the truth.
Who are they kidding?
Secrets and lies are a coward's way of dealing with a difficult situation, and that's what Mike Leigh's brilliant film Secrets & Lies illustrates so powerfully.
With her malapropisms and her tendency to call everyone 'swede-art', Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is a nervous, timid character with a longstanding bitterness towards her estranged brother (Timothy Spall) and a somewhat aggressive fussiness around her daughter Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook).
But there's perhaps a reason for Cynthia's anxiety. She has a secret - the baby she gave up for adoption when she was a lot younger. She's kept it quiet from Roxanne, and you can tell that she's done her best to kid herself that it never happened.
But secrets, and lies, have lives of their own until you kill them off with the truth. Stick that secret in the closet and there's always the danger that someone might open it and let it out. Tell a lie and you might as well have planted a vigorous plant that needs constant training to be kept under control.
As soon as Cynthia meets Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) - the daughter she gave up - you know that it's only a matter of time before her secret comes out (the film's title indicates that really). So you're just holding your breath waiting for the disaster to come.
When it finally bursts forth in the scene below, I always gasp - every time I watch this movie. It's an emotional rollercoaster for everyone concerned, passing through fear, horror, disbelief, confusion, betrayal, shock, embarrassment, regret, and so much more.
For me this is one of the most powerful movie scenes ever because the scenario doesn't feel artificial and manipulated. It feels real.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-AnQy2jxlE&fs=1
Secrets & Lies is showing on Film4 tonight (2nd November) at 10.50pm
