In Secret
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: February 21, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
16
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
40
The GuardianMike McCahillSep 22, 2014
It's imprisoned by its own glibness, grabbing for sensation over emotion, and looking silly whenever it misses. Read full review
40
CineVueJoe WalshMay 21, 2014
Sadly, In Secret's script is so loaded with dud lines that any of the more successful elements are quickly erased from memory. Read full review
60
EmpireAnna SmithMay 12, 2014
Sensitive performances from a willing cast bring Zola's novel to life on the big screen. Read full review
45
NPRMark JenkinsFeb 21, 2014
If the movie fails to conjure soiled 19th-century Paris, that's not primarily because it was shot in Hungary and Serbia. More problematic are the English-language dialogue and actors who speak in a variety of accents and perform in a range of styles. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonFeb 21, 2014
In Secret is a costume drama with a gigantic accent on the drama. It's my kind of crazy, and I was quite entertained. To borrow again from Shakespeare, "'Tis Madness, but there's method to't." Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesMary HoulihanFeb 20, 2014
There is nothing really wrong with In Secret, yet in the end one feels dissatisfied. It’s as if you’ve just sat through a dry academic lecture dissecting the novel. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 20, 2014
An effective period piece thriller that incorporates love, lust, desperation, and madness into a stew thickened by a gothic atmosphere. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanFeb 20, 2014
If you go in with the right attitude, there’s a fair amount of fun to be had from In Secret, considering it’s a musty French costume drama done in plummy English accents. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 20, 2014
Ms. Olsen and the more persuasive Mr. Isaac may generate heat, but their performances and the filmmaking lack the frenzy that might explain how these two crazy kids turned into murderous fiends. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughFeb 20, 2014
That’s the key to this movie — the way Thérèse looks at things; it’s a rare film that focuses on a woman actually looking and how she responds to what she sees. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 20, 2014
Whatever possessed the people who made this film to believe its ponderous style would appeal to contemporary audiences? One answer may lie in a variant of the mostly true proposition that no one sets out to make a bad film. No one chooses ponderousness as a goal; it comes unbidden, with deadly earnestness. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenFeb 20, 2014
A film rich in atmosphere but emotionally as blunt as its title. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsFeb 20, 2014
In Secret is so stifled, it makes “Les Misérables” look like “Amélie.” Read full review
33
Portland OregonianMarc MohanFeb 20, 2014
The only thing Stratton, a former television actor making his first feature, has going for him is the casting of Jessica Lange. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 20, 2014
Here is a culture in which female strength, having no outlet, must become distorted or lethal. In Therese and her aunt, we find two manifestations of the same disease. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanFeb 20, 2014
What do we do about a movie that is half compelling and half unwatchable? Director Charlie Stratton seems to be onto something at the start of his period drama In Secret. Then it all slips through his fingers. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 20, 2014
Olsen is pretty good, too, though with her bald-faced, moon-eyed disdain for everyone around her, the material loses some of its tension between repressed surface and roiling underbelly. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesFeb 19, 2014
Isaac and Olsen are both mesmerizing actors, and Lange and Felton also do very good work in supporting roles, but their collective gameness – all that acting their pants off (sometimes literally) – is underserved by the film’s script and direction. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergFeb 19, 2014
If it weren’t for the costumes, the basic plot could be mistaken for a 19th-century version of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" or "Double Indemnity." Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 19, 2014
Your average episode of “Days of Our Lives” is less soapy (and performed with more restraint). Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 19, 2014
The acting is good, the story of doomed lovers suitably tragic. But the film is never quite moving in the way one would hope. Read full review
40
The DissolveScott TobiasFeb 19, 2014
Though it sounds like a contradiction, the film could be described as both dull and over the top. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyFeb 19, 2014
There’s never any doubt that this will end badly for the lovers. But just in case, Jessica Lange as the fire-breathing mother-in-law seals the deal. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedFeb 19, 2014
The generic title In Secret is as uninspired as the movie itself. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreFeb 19, 2014
A genuine “bodice ripper” of a thriller, with the requisite heavy breathing that comes after said bodice is ripped. The sex isn’t explicit, but Olsen and Isaac suggest the heat that gives this doomed affair its momentum. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlFeb 18, 2014
In Secret boasts vigor and thematic richness, that feeling of artists expressing something vital. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfFeb 18, 2014
Jessica Lange, as rare as a unicorn these days, seizes on the role of a grieving mother with two taloned hands. If there are any tremors of shame to be felt here, they emanate from her. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineDavid Lee DallasFeb 17, 2014
A broad, crude mutilation of Emile Zola's noirish romance Thérèse Raquin that prioritizes heavy petting over plot. Read full review
40
VarietyDennis HarveySep 27, 2013
Serviceable but uninspired, this latest version of Emile Zola’s much-adapted 1867 novel “Therese Raquin” sends its characters to their doom on schedule without stirring much sense of tragedy or emotional involvement. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 27, 2013
In a showy adaptation by first-time helmer Charlie Stratton, the story is more glum than seductive -- offering surprising sexual encounters, yes, but too little of the slow burn and psychological depth that might have made the Les Mis-meets-Jim Thompson concept get under one's skin. Read full review
67
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 27, 2013
Therese is almost voyeuristically distant from what's happening on screen, asking the audience to observe, but leaving just enough a gap of being completely engaged, that while everything is very well articulated, the impact is more academic than sensual. Read full review
0
IndieWireKaleem AftabSep 27, 2013
It takes a special talent to turn the romantic lyricism of Zola and turn it into chick-lit. Read full review
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