A Secret
Strand Releasing | Release Date: September 5, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick 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 MagazineKen Fox
A gripping mystery and an ever-timely reminder of the terrible power of repression and silence. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel 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 TimesA.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
SalonAndrew 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 WeeklyLisa 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 TribuneMichael 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
VarietyDennis Harvey
A fine drama that stands as Gallic vet Claude Miller's best in at least a decade. Read full review
70
Village VoiceElla 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
70
NPRBob 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. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
A harrowing and wrenching coming-of-age story. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJoshua Katzman
Bittersweet drama. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJami 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. Read full review
50
New York PostV.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. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A structural mess that turns contrived just when it should be hitting home. Read full review
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