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Secret, A
Strand Releasing

Secret, A reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 72 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
5.8 out of 10
based on 15 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA 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)


GENRE(S): Drama  |  War  
WRITTEN BY: Philippe Grimbert (novel)
Claude Miller
 
DIRECTED BY: Claude Miller  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: March 10, 2009 
Theatrical: September 5, 2008 
RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: France 
LANGUAGE(S): French 

Alternative Title: Un secret

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...

100
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
88
TV Guide Ken Fox
A gripping mystery and an ever-timely reminder of the terrible power of repression and silence.
Read Full Review
83
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
80
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
80
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
75
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
75
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
70
Chicago Reader Joshua Katzman
Bittersweet drama.
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70
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.
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70
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A harrowing and wrenching coming-of-age story.
Read Full Review
70
Variety Dennis Harvey
A fine drama that stands as Gallic vet Claude Miller's best in at least a decade.
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70
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
60
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.
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50
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.
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50
Boston Globe Ty Burr
A structural mess that turns contrived just when it should be hitting home.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!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.

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