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Secret, A

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | War
Written by:
Philippe Grimbert (novel)
Claude Miller
Directed by: Claude Miller
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 5, 2008
DVD: March 10, 2009
Running Time: 105 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Cecile De France, Patrick Bruel, Ludivine Sagnier, Julie Depardieu, and Mathieu Amalric
A Secret follows the saga of a Jewish family in post-World War II Paris. François, a solitary, imaginative child, invents for himself a brother as well as the story of his parents` past. But on his fifteenth birthday, he discovers a dark family secret that ties his family`s history to the Holocaust and shatters his illusions forever. Adapted from Philippe Grimbert`s celebrated truth-inspired novel, Memory. (Strand Releasing)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Alias Betty La Petite Lili
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A complicated family story that takes place in three distinct time periods, and that's handled with astonishing ease and fluidity by director Claude Miller.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
A gripping mystery and an ever-timely reminder of the terrible power of repression and silence.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
A Secret is suitably tense, sad, and deeply poignant as it moves toward an epilogue exploring the idea that everything rots and decays, no mater how well-maintained.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Nearly every melodramatic impulse has been suppressed in favor of a calm precision that serves both to intensify and delay the emotional impact of the film’s climactic disclosures.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
A clanking, old-fashioned period drama infused with almost unbearable grief, Claude Miller's film A Secret has an enormous significance in France that it can never possess elsewhere.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The filmmaker's decision to shoot the past in color and the present in murky black and white is an inspired visual translation of psychological truth.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The acting is exceptional. If parts of A Secret veer toward soap opera, the ensemble work reduces the suds to a minimum.
Read Full Review >NPR Bob Mondello
Claude Miller's ravishingly shot drama A Secret gives up its titular mystery early, so it may seem odd to speak of the suspense it generates.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
A fine drama that stands as Gallic vet Claude Miller's best in at least a decade.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
Deepened by its complex back-and-forth chronology, deft shifts in perspective, and a significantly counterintuitive color-coding of past and present, A Secret suggests that it's not illicit passion, but rather the crime of denial, that has screwed up this family down the generations.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Beautifully acted and exquisitely photographed, director Claude Miller's superb drama, from Philippe Grimbert's autobiographical novel, is awash with the ripples created by unlived lives.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
The fractured timeline covers five decades, which Miller weaves together, with the past shot in color and the present in black and white. Still, the soapy climax is unnecessary.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
A structural mess that turns contrived just when it should be hitting home.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.8 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Ken G gave it a2:
I suppose there is an interesting story to tell here, but this movie tells it in such a tedious and (unnecessarily) round-about way, that it sucks all the poignancy, pathos, and power right out of this story.
Susan C. gave it a1:
Please, don't waste two hours of your lifetime watching this movie.
