Plot.
Poster of Secrets & Lies

Secrets & Lies

1996 · Film · 142 min

  • Drama

Plot

After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.

About Secrets & Lies

Secrets & Lies is a 1996 comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh. Led by an ensemble cast consisting of many Leigh regulars, it focuses on a dysfunctional family whose relations are thrown into further chaos after Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is contacted by her adult daughter Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), who was put up for adoption at birth and wishes to connect with her birth mother. Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan, and Claire Rushbrook co-star as other members of the family. The film premiered on 10 May 1996 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won both the Palme d'Or and the Best Actress Award (Blethyn). Upon its release, it received critical acclaim for its performances and emotional weight, and grossed $33–50 million at the box office, against a budget of $4.5 million. At the 69th Academy Awards, Secrets & Lies was nominated in five categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress (Blethyn), and Best Supporting Actress (Jean-Baptiste). It also received three nominations at the 54th Golden Globe Awards, winning Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama (Blethyn), and seven nominations at the 50th British Academy Film Awards, winning Outstanding British Film, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress in a Leading Role (Blethyn).

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cast

  • Brenda BlethynCynthia Rose Purley
  • Marianne Jean-BaptisteHortense Cumberbatch
  • Timothy SpallMaurice Purley
  • Phyllis LoganMonica Purley
  • Claire RushbrookRoxanne Purley
  • Lee RossPaul
  • Lesley ManvilleThe Social Worker
  • Elizabeth BerringtonJane
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