Secrets and Lies
by Mike Leigh
Our Price: $39.47
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $38.80 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Brenda Blethyn, Claire Rushbrook, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Phyllis Logan, Timothy SpallDirector: Mike Leigh
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 142 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of Secrets and Lies
DVD Review: Kitchen-sink comedy/drama with heart
Summary: 4 Stars
Mike Leigh's film won Best Picture at the Cannes Film Festival. A young black woman decides to find her birth-mother only to discover her mother is white, just one among many of the SECRETS & LIES of this tale. A first-rate cast delivers knock-out performances. A bit on the long side, the film has both drama and comical moments, with a healthy helping of tenderness. The DVD has a good quality transfer of the widescreen original but no bonus features apart from the trailer (and a few other trailers). A first-rate comedy/drama with heart!DVD Review: Quick ship - Perfect Condition
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a classic movie - one most everyone should own. Anyone should be able to relate to something in the movie. It is so well directed and acted that I tend to get lost in the reality of the story. It would be a dis-service to applaud one actor over another. They were all at their best. Don't miss this. DVD Review: Beautiful Truth
Summary: 5 Stars
"Secrets and lies! We're all in pain! Why can't we share our pain? I've spent my entire life trying to make people happy, and the three people I love the most in the world hate each other's guts, and I'm in the middle! I can't take it anymore!"
One of the most beautiful, heart-breaking, heart-warming, Truthful movies that I have ever seen.
DVD Review: Great Sunday afternoon movie
Summary: 5 Stars
As an adult adoptee, I found the premise of this movie really interesting (young woman decides to find birthmother, locates her, is surprised by what she finds - and there's much more to it) so I ordered it and sat down to watch it with my husband on a Sunday afternoon. It's a very well-written story (although some of the editing/direction is a little choppy)and very "real" - there's no fantasy world here. The acting is fantastic and very touching, accurately reflecting the upheaval (and fulfillment) that adoption reunions can bring. This is certainly not a comedy, it's a fairly heavy story, but emotionally fulfilling.DVD Review: Slow, "heavy", but worthy...
Summary: 4 Stars
Hortense, a young black woman, loses her adoptive Mother and commences a search to find her birth mother. She learns that her birth mother is Cynthia, a single parent working in a stamping factory and just making things meet. The story grows when secrets and lies begin to come out - and explode during a birthday barbecue for Cynthia's 21 year old daughter.
Reviews describe this movie as "hysterically funny and profoundly sad". While there were flashes of humor in the movie, I would agree with the "profoundly sad" characterization and there was plenty of gloom to go around here.
The first 30-45 minutes of setting the stage were quite slow so hang in there as the storyline starts to become quite engaging. The casting and acting by/for all of the major characters is terrific - the psychological anguish is apparent from the get-go - and the cinematography is wonderful.
Description of Secrets and Lies
After her adoptive parents die, a young black woman seeks out her natural birth mother, only to discover her mother is white, thus setting in motion the revelation of a whole series of secrets and lies.If a film fan had never heard of director Mike Leigh, one might explain him as a British Woody Allen. Not that Leigh's films are whimsical or neurotic; they are tough-love examinations of British life--funny, outlandish, and biting. His films share a real immediacy with Allen's work: they feel as if they are happening now. Leigh works with actors--real actors--on ideas and language. There is no script at the start (and sometimes not at the end). Secrets and Lies involves Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), an elegant black woman wanting to learn her birth mother's identity. She will find it's Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), who is one of the saddest creatures we've seen in film. She's also one of the most real and, ultimately, one of the most lovable. Timothy Spall is Cynthia's brother, a giant man full of love who is being slowly defeated by his fastidious wife (Phyllis Logan).
There is a great exuberance of life in Secrets & Lies, winner of the Palme D'Or and best actress (Blethyn) at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival--not Zorba-type life but the little battles fought and won every day. Leigh's honest interpretation of daily life is usually found only on the stage. Secrets & Lies is more realistic than a stage production, however, especially when Leigh shows us uninterrupted scenes. Critic David Denby states that Leigh has "made an Ingmar Bergman film without an instant of heaviness or pretension." If that sounds like your cup of tea, see Secrets & Lies. --Doug Thomas
Drama DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in Drama DVDs
The Battle of Algiers - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2004-10-12; DVD
Best price: $30.00
Price in other shops:
The Chorus (Les Choristes)Release date: 2005-05-03; DVD
Best price: $20.48
Price in other shops:
RomanceROMANCE (DVD MOVIE); Release date: 2002-02-05; DVD
Best price: $7.51
Price in other shops:
The PianistRelease date: 2003-05-27; DVD
Best price: $8.40
Price in other shops:
IrreversibleLions Gate; Release date: 2003-08-05; DVD
Best price: $11.81
Price in other shops:
The LoverRelease date: 2001-12-11; DVD
Best price: $6.88
Price in other shops:
Il PostinoRelease date: 2000-03-14; DVD
Best price: $5.43
Price in other shops:
Babette's FeastRelease date: 2001-01-23; DVD
Best price: $5.54
Price in other shops:
HamletRelease date: 2004-02-24; DVD
Best price: $6.74
Price in other shops:
The Dreamers (Original Uncut NC-17 Version)Release date: 2004-07-13; DVD
Best price: $4.09
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Shirley ValentineParamount; Release date: 2007-05-01; DVD
Best price: $7.96
Price in other shops:
No Country for Old MenRelease date: 2008-03-11; DVD
Best price: $12.49
Price in other shops:
There Will Be BloodParamount; Release date: 2008-04-08; DVD
Best price: $6.74
Price in other shops:
The ConversationParamount; Release date: 2000-12-12; DVD
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
Atonement (Widescreen Edition)Universal; Release date: 2008-03-18; DVD
Best price: $5.34
Price in other shops:
The Lives of OthersSony; Release date: 2007-08-21; DVD
Best price: $12.27
Price in other shops:
All Or Nothing (2002)Release date: 2003-02-18; DVD
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops:
Naked - Criterion CollectionRelease date: 2005-09-20; DVD
Best price: $27.06
Price in other shops:
Vera DrakeRelease date: 2005-03-29; DVD
Best price: $2.93
Price in other shops:
Career GirlsRelease date: 2005-09-06; DVD
Best price: $18.75