Saturday, April 17, 2010

Secrets & Lies ****


Writer/Director: Mike Leigh
Year: 1996
Cinematographer: Dick Pope

Mike Leigh knows how to write a screenplay that gives a full emotional development for all characters and he knows how to direct his camera subtly, giving his actors space to fill out those characters honestly.

I like the way he sets up the characters individually, and then slowly weaves them all together, which climaxes in an explosive family gathering.

I also liked Timothy Spall as the Maurice character, and Leigh gives a really nice segment in which we see Maurice, a professional photographer, working with a series of customers.

My critique is that he could have edited this a little shorter, for example: the opening funeral sequence and the sequence when Maurice is visited by the previous owner of his shop has little to no consequence for the main plot.

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