A Secret
Metascore
72 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
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  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    100
    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.
  2. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    88
    A gripping mystery and an ever-timely reminder of the terrible power of repression and silence.
  3. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    83
    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.
  4. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    80
    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.
  5. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    80
    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.
  6. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    75
    The acting is exceptional. If parts of A Secret veer toward soap opera, the ensemble work reduces the suds to a minimum.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    75
    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.
  8. NPR
    Reviewed by: Bob Mondello
    70
    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.
  9. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    70
    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.
  10. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    70
    A harrowing and wrenching coming-of-age story.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Dennis Harvey
    70
    A fine drama that stands as Gallic vet Claude Miller's best in at least a decade.
  12. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Joshua Katzman
    70
    Bittersweet drama.
  13. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    60
    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.
  14. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    50
    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.
  15. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    50
    A structural mess that turns contrived just when it should be hitting home.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.8 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 2 out of 2
  1. KenG
    2
    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.… Full Review »
  2. SusanC.
    1
    Please, don't waste two hours of your lifetime watching this movie.
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