Aug. 02, 2002 - 12:45 am
what's the only Best Picture nominee of the 1990s that you've never heard of? that's right. Secrets & Lies. big year for indie films that year. only 1 of the 5 nominees was a big budget Hollywood film. and it didn't win. The English Patient (1996) did.
i'm guessing this film is probably also the most mediocre of the films that were nominated. it's a hardcore family melodrama. made by British director Mike Leigh who has a very interesting style to filmmaking. his idea is to get together the actors he wants to play the parts and then has them more or less create their own characters. he helps them write their lines and everything, but they have a lot of input all throughout the process. it's like collaborative film writing and directing. apparently the two lead actresses had never met each other before they meet onscreen for the first time. yes, a very odd approach indeed.
the basic story revolves around the various pieces of a family slowly coming together. we start out seeing a young black lady who is searching for her mother who put her up for adoption at birth. then we see the white mother having problems relating to her own daughter. we see her brother making a living as a photographer and trying to keep his marriage intact. everyone ends up coming together for a birthday party at the end and everything sort of comes out into the open. all the problems they've had and are currently having, and what's good about their relationships with each other.
Secrets & Lies did have some excellent direction and acting. it's a little too melodramatic for me though. there's nothing else interesting happening in the film except for the relationships between the various characters.
other problems with this film. it contains the most obtrusive and detestable soundtrack ever. there are these screeching horns and a terrible string section including a harp which is horribly out of place. just awful to hear. another problem is that this film commits one of the cardinal sins of filmmaking and screenwriting in my book. it mentions the title in the dialogue of the film, and it's at the climax! wow, that was upsetting. overall, it has some very good qualities, but they are few.