In Secret (2014)

the audience applauded

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The setting of the story was excellently crafted, old Paris and surroundings, but I found the sexual explicit scenes a bit annoying and out of place; however, as the movie develops the plot of the story comes to life and the excitement builds. I liked the latter part of the movie the most. I also liked the beautiful scenes of nature. All in all I found this to be a film with a well written yet, very dark plot.

Thérèse Raquin (Elizabeth Olsen) is left by her father to live with his sister (Jessica Lange). Her hope of his return is lost when he's reported dead. She is pushed to marry her sickly cousin Camille (Tom Felton) by her domineering aunt. Camille finds a clerical job in Paris and the three of them move to the city. They buy a dusty shop and Thérèse is stuck behind the counters at the empty shop. She falls for Camille's new work friend Laurent (Oscar Isaac) who also paints. They quickly have an affair. However their secret affair is threatened when Camille decides to move back to the country.It's a rather dull costume drama for the first half hour. Everything is dim and cold. Olsen needs some more opportunity to do something. When she pretended to be a bear, it was a flash of something great. The movie seems to be filled with possible great moments that are quickly engulfed by the movie's overwhelming blackness and whispers. It's an old romance novel of corset ripping without any great charm.When the movie changes to a murder thriller, it picks up some energy but nothing that truly takes off. The prodding darkness keeps clawing it back to lifelessness. I never really fell in love with the couple. Lange is masterful at times but the movie is generally lifeless. It tries to be a nightmarish Hitchcockian thriller but director Charlie Stratton doesn't have the skills.

Where do I start? Reviewing this melodramatic movie that leaves you dead at the end (no pun intended), is going to be a task. I can honestly classify it as the most depressing film I have seen in a long time. The story is apparently based on a writing by the name of "Thérèse Raquin," written in 1867 by Emile Zola.In short, the movie is about a young girl, who after her mother dies, is placed with her aunt and her sick, coughing cousin. Jessica Lange plays a controlling mother (Madame Raquin), who orchestrates Therese's life at every turn. Her father passes away, and Therese is left with a small annuity. No doubt for her own financial gain, she insists that Therese marry her cousin. Unfortunately, he is not appealing in personality or looks, while she on the other hand is attracted to handsome men and deals with an uncontrollable sex drive.When they relocate from the country to Paris, down a dark and dingy street to open a shop, Therese meets Laurent, a friend of the family. It doesn't take long for the two of them to fall into a lust-driven, sexual relationship that borders on the ridiculous as they meet in secret. Her domineering aunt has no idea that while she is tending the store below, her niece is copulating like a nymphomaniac upstairs in the room she shares with her son. Though you are led to believe it is love between the two, I frankly thought it bordered on physical obsession. Her lover knows how to control her need for him by pleasuring her at every turn, just as well as her aunt who manipulates her to do her bidding.As far as Therese's husband, played by Tom Felton, he is a boring and idiotic man, and a mama's boy. His relationship with his mother is frankly as sickly as his health (cough, cough), as his mother dominates and coddles him into adulthood.Laurent, as sexually driven as Therese, wants her all to himself. He suggests that they orchestrate an accident to do away with her husband. After all, accidents happen every day. Therese is hesitant to carry out the plan, but Laurent takes it to the end when the three of them go boating. He pushes her husband overboard, beats him with a paddle, and they watch him drown. Of course, they are dragged back to shore feigning a terrible boating accident wherein he loses his life. His body is recovered, buried, and no one is the wiser, except for one family friend who has her suspicions.Of course, after the murder and time passes, Laurent and Therese marry and live together with Madame Raquin at the shop. Their relationship turns sour very quickly, as guilt for murdering Camille and their debase personalities come to the forefront. In the meantime, Madame Raquin has a stroke, no doubt brought on by her excessive grief over her son's death, and is left unable to move or speak. As she is confined to a wheelchair, she discovers through their yelling fights with one another that they murdered her son.Well, where does this leave this sordid tale of dysfunctional family, adultery, lust, and whatever else you want to term it? It comes to an end where Therese and Laurent grow to hate each other so much they plot each other's demise. In the end, they both go mad as a hatter, and commit suicide in front of Madame Raquin, who finally obtains justice for her son's murder. The scene is no Romeo and Juliet moment, believe me. Instead, it is a sad commentary to two selfish people who committed a senseless murder that leads to no happy ending.As far as performances, Jessica Lange, I thought carried the insatiable grief about her son's death to a psychotic level. Whether it was the intention of her performance to do so because of the script, I have no idea. However, I thought it felt excessive. Elizabeth Olsen's portrayal, as well as Oscar Isaac's, as the colliding lovers (definitely not star-crossed lovers), were well done conveying the characters' crazy drive for sex and ultimate demise due to guilt that borders on lunacy.The setting overall, especially in Paris, is very dark and gloomy, which frankly mirrors the story. The costumes were mid-Victorian era and dull in color for the most part.If you like depressing, dark, and dramatic period movies that leave you feeling uninspired, this one is for you.

"It's always the ones in the corner you have too worry about."Kind of like in the same way that the main character, Therese, is trapped in a loveless marriage in this period drama directed by Charlie Stratton, I felt trapped in this dull and lifeless film. To be honest, I checked this film out because of the cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Oscar Isaac, Tom Felton, and Jessica Lange are all superb actors, but their characters never had much depth. There were major problems with the adaptation of the screenplay from Émile Zola's 19th century novel, "Therese Racquin," while the pacing was an issue for me as well. The production design transported me to 19th Century Paris very well, but the English language used never felt like it was from that period. In Secret does begin with some promise and I actually was drawn to the characters, but after 20 or so minutes it began to lose its appeal as it became hard to sympathize with any of the characters. We've seen this sort of Shakespearean tragedy played out many times and much better than it is done here. Jessica Lange is the only one who actually raises above from the rest of the cast and tries to salvage the movie, but it is expected considering her character had to undergo the most emotional ranges. Her character is the strongest thing about In Secret where she slowly transforms from an unsympathetic character to a sympathetic one.The story is set during the 1860's in Paris as we are introduced to a forced marriage between Thérèse Raquin (Elizabeth Olsen) and her cousin Camille (Tom Felton) by his domineering mother, Madame Raquin (Jessica Lange). Therese was raised by Madame after her mother passed away and her father decided to leave her in their care before moving to Africa. Therese grew up playing nurse to the often sick Camille, and eventually was forced to marry him. Camille cares for Therese as a brother, but doesn't really show any affection towards her as a husband, which leaves Therese sexually repressed. One day Camille brings an old friend home. His name is Laurent (Oscar Isaac) and he soon begins a secret affair with Therese behind Camille's back, which eventually leads to tragic consequences.This is the third film I've seen Olsen in over the past two weeks, and despite not choosing the best projects for her I still consider she is a talented actress. She has not reached the same level she did in Martha Marcy May Marlene, but she is someone whose movies I'm always looking forward to. Despite this, I still didn't like the character she played in this film and didn't believe the chemistry she shared with Oscar Isaac on screen. This period drama really relies on that strong chemistry, but other than the forbidden love premise the film doesn't have much going for it. The film explores common issues we've seen in other better films. In Secret uncovers the tragic consequences of dark secrets and how they can end up destroying you. Only Jessica Lange fans might leave this film satisfied because she does deliver the strongest performance in the movie, but nothing else works very well in this uninspired film.