Best British Films: 3. Secrets & Lies

Mike Leigh's second film on The Observer's List of the 25 Best British Films of the Past 25 Years (see sidebar) is another insightful ensemble drama, Secrets & Lies.
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The films stars two actresses I adore, Brenda Blethyn and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, among a host of other fantastic British character actors (as is typical in a Leigh film). Cynthia (Blethyn) is a middle-aged, nervous woman who has raised her daughter alone, and who years ago gave another baby up for adoption. Her daughter has been unhappy lately, and seems to be growing more and more distant from Cynthia with each passing week. Cynthia's brother Maurice is a photographer who's doing well. He has a wife but no children. They're a family, but they're not close, even though we sense that they want to be.
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Hortense (Jean-Baptiste) is an adopted black woman whose mother has recently died, and she makes the decision to seek out her birth mother. She discovers that the woman who gave birth to her is a white woman named Cynthia Purley and arranges a meeting with her.
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Despite its heavy subject matter, the movie is entertaining and funny. Mike Leigh's filmmaking method again proves successful. He and his cast have created arresting characters with wonderfully natural actions and dialogue. Cynthia and Hortense seem like real women with real struggles and love.
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Each member of Cynthia's family has a painful secret, and Cynthia's new relationship with her daughter is the catalyst for change between them. The movie isn't about race, teenage pregnancy, or adoption. It's about the secrets and lies that can tear people apart, and how honesty and acceptance are the only ways for a family to stay together. ****/4