Secrets & Lies
1996
*****
Director: Mike Leigh
Cast: Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook, Lee Ross, Lesley Manville, Elizabeth Berrington, Michele Austin, Ron Cook
Mike Leigh's brilliant drama delves into the complexities of family relationships. Hortense, a young black woman tracks down her birth mother Cynthia, a working-class white woman who has a troubled relationship with her daughter Roxanne, brother Maurice, and his wife Monica. This is a finely constructed and strongly acted film about long-buried secrets that leads to a heartwrenching finale. Brenda Blethyn is phenomenal as Cynthia.
