Secret Things
First Run Features | Release Date: January 2, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
7
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
L.A. WeeklyScott 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
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
The result is both merciless and darkly funny. Read full review
80
VarietyLisa 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
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The sensationalistic beginning and needless mumbo-jumbo ending aside, this is a female buddy film with bite. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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
70
The A.V. ClubScott 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
70
The New York TimesDave Kehr
There is no denying the force of Mr. Brisseau's bizarre imagination and the personal conviction he brings to it. Read full review
70
SalonCharles 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
70
Chicago ReaderJ.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
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland 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
60
The Hollywood ReporterFrank 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
60
EmpireDavid 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
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Skids into absurdity, but it never quite gets boring. Movies like this rarely are. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. 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
50
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
Trashy porno pretending to be deep. Read full review
40
Washington PostMark 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
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Hints at a place where desire, fear, pleasure, and power all intersect, but it never actually goes there. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Gets more operatically farcical (most of it unintentionally so) by the minute. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc 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
25
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Silly and pointless film. Read full review
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