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Secret Things

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Secret Things reviews
55
6.4 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Foreign

Written by: Jean-Claude Brisseau

Directed by: Jean-Claude Brisseau

Release Date:
Theatrical: January 2, 2004
DVD: November 23, 2004

Running Time: 115 minutes, Color

Origin: France

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Coralie Revel, Sabrina Seyvecou, Roger Mirmont, Fabrice Deville, Blandine Bury, Olivier Soler, Viviane Théophildès, and Dorothée Picard

After they are both fired, two penniless but shapely young French women set out to climb the social ladder by manipulating men.

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...

80

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Though his work has been little seen outside of France, writer-director Jean-Claude Brisseau's reputation as one of the most terribles of his country's filmmaking enfants precedes him. This 2002 film offers ample evidence as to why.

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80

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The result is both merciless and darkly funny.

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80

Variety Lisa Nesselson

There's plenty for both the eyes and intellect to groove over in Secret Things, a taut, juicy, low-key feast of sexual and office politics filtered through helmer Jean-Claude Brisseau's customary blend of expedient formality and all-stops-out baroque behavior.

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75

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The sensationalistic beginning and needless mumbo-jumbo ending aside, this is a female buddy film with bite.

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75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A rare item these days: An erotic film made well enough to keep us interested. It's about beautiful people, has a lot of nudity, and the sex is as explicit as possible this side of porno.

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70

The New York Times Dave Kehr

There is no denying the force of Mr. Brisseau's bizarre imagination and the personal conviction he brings to it.

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70

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Not a great movie, but its daring and seriousness, its refusal to take refuge in the sort of irony that diminishes whatever it touches, its willingness to risk ludicrousness, may be elements that are necessary to achieve greatness.

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70

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Cobbled together from borrowed parts, Jean-Claude Brisseau's Secret Things makes a fearsome Frankenstein monster out of other movies, yet the influences are so thoroughly digested that they come out seeming wholly original.

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70

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

I still can't decide whether it's a masterpiece of sexual provocation or just a really classy stroke film.

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60

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It would be hard to mount a straight-faced defense of Brisseau's feverish moral tale, complete with a lurking angel of death, but the carnal machinations are hugely entertaining -- particularly if you like your skin with a bracing sermon chaser.

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60

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

While visually stylish and thematically ambitious, Secret Things is ultimately more preposterous than provocative, its vague explorations of sexual and class struggle failing to coalesce in a coherent manner.

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60

Empire David Parkinson

Stylish and gripping at times, this wry very-French gender satire is definitetly entertaining but falls down a little in the third act.

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50

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Skids into absurdity, but it never quite gets boring. Movies like this rarely are.

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50

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

Trashy porno pretending to be deep.

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50

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Neil LaBute on his worst day couldn't devise a scenario so primitive in its psychology and predictable in its sense of sin.

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40

Washington Post Mark Jenkins

A tolerably silly lark, decorated with lots of tasteful (and exclusively female) nudity. Yet as Christophe's role expands -- and the soundtrack's classical flourishes become more strident -- the film's plausibility plummets.

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38

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Hints at a place where desire, fear, pleasure, and power all intersect, but it never actually goes there.

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30

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It’s Brisseau's penchant for the flamboyantly perverse and the perversely flamboyant, however, that might have been best left secret.

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30

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Gets more operatically farcical (most of it unintentionally so) by the minute.

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25

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Silly and pointless film.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.4 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

robert h. gave it a4:
Not just silly, transcends silly. but all of the actresses have nice boobs.

George B. gave it a 10:
I agree. This movie was awesome. Absolutely stunning. See this movie!!! 10/10

Jonathan L. gave it a 10:
Quite easily my favorite film of 2003. clever, wise and entirely entertaining. only sexually self aware people need apply.

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