FILM.
SECRETS AND LIES
1996 | DIRECTED BY MIKE LEIGH
Sometimes you love people not despite their flaws but because of them.
Because it makes them human. And because it makes them them, in all their exasperating charm, and not anyone else. And because it’s how they make it through.
Mike Leigh develops characters here that are deeply loveable. Not in a teddy bear kind of way, but a wow, these people are battered and bruised and still giving it their all.
So you love Cynthia for her mawkishness, Roxanne for her barbs, Maurice for his reticence. It’s the way they’ve each carved out to endure something as difficult as life, and it’s endearing and heroic.
Trying and failing and trying again and failing again: this vulnerability paired with inadequacy, where best efforts always seem to come up short, makes your heart swell and crack for each of them.
In the culminating moment, for Cynthia, and then Maurice, and then Monica, and then Roxanne, and then Hortense, and then Cynthia again, and then everyone all at the same time.
It’s a masterful climax, and worth the wait. Still dabbing my eyes.