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The films follows a successful black woman and her white mother. When the woman's mother tries to hide her underprivileged status and when emotions run high, deceits are made, causing tears and scars that are difficult to repair.
In the hands of another director, it would have been a sentimental melodrama, a soap opera, but with nuanced writing and sharp helming, Mike Leigh mixes humor and pathos in equal measure.
Leigh's film stops short of catharsis, providing the potential for the characters' rebuilding of their relationships without suggesting that such projects are simple or immediate.
An English mother-daughter racial melodrama that resonates with simplicity and insight. Leigh is considerate of his movie's identity and spirit just as much as demonstrates this with his wounded protagonists
June 26, 2004
Judith Egerton
The characters are so painfully real it's more like watching a documentary than a made-up story.
Leigh's best work yet is indisputably screen art, but it's a flesh-and-blood 'people' movie, too.
January 01, 2000
Cole Smithey
Much more than just a touching story of the ties that bind humanity and the way we reveal ourselves, "Secrets and Lies" (1996) is a staggering work of cinematic genius. It is truly a perfect film.