Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The![]()
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The![]()
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Secret Things

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
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.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Exterminating Angels
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The sensationalistic beginning and needless mumbo-jumbo ending aside, this is a female buddy film with bite.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Skids into absurdity, but it never quite gets boring. Movies like this rarely are.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Hints at a place where desire, fear, pleasure, and power all intersect, but it never actually goes there.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Gets more operatically farcical (most of it unintentionally so) by the minute.
Read Full Review >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.
