Forbidden Secrets (2007)

You won't be disappointed!

Excellent but underrated film

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The tragedy you see after the opening credits causes nightmares for grown-up blonde beauty Kristy Swanson (as Alexandra "Alex" Kent). Although it was the scene of the horrific drama she experienced as a cute little girl, Ms. Swanson has decided to move back into the luxurious brownstone. She's also decided to shed successful husband Charles Powell (as Dan Lambeth) – in spite of his very cool hairdo. Swanson quickly considers bedding her insane mother's doctor David Keeley (as Mike Stanheight). He has cool hair, too. In the old home again, our heroine takes a swim in the indoor pool. Then, she begins to act really weird. Swanson tries to piece together mysteries from the past while maintaining her own sanity. Her busy psychiatrist Christopher Bondy (as Sam Bradburn) thinks Swanson should have stayed away from the brownstone and all the "Forbidden Secrets" dwelling inside...This is not a bad revision, by writer Karen Craig and director Richard Roy, of some commonly used plot points. But, it gets off to a bad start by not identifying mysteries. Know that the flashback opening is woefully incomplete; perhaps, including a shadowy figure would have heightened interest. The "key" element used to tie things tougher is the silver necklace Swanson often wears. You can see why any woman would want to wear it all the time – well, not. Some of the story stretches credulity too much – like how Swanson can't locate a certain room. She should simply ask the contractor, who could analyze the brownstone's entire structure. And, the drawing is obvious, but few in the cast seems to have a clue. There are some rough edges (watch that continuity on the couch), also. In supporting roles, head contractor Richard Jutras (as Ed) and girlfriend Marianne Farley (as Gina) are terrific.***** Forbidden Secrets (9/26/05) Richard Roy ~ Kristy Swanson, David Keeley, Christopher Bondy, Richard Jutras

**SPOILER ALERT** The dark secret that's been haunting art collector Alexandra Kent Lambeth, Kristy Swanson,since childhood is to come full crucial when she finally decided to visit her committed mom Evelyn, Jude Beny, at a local sanitarium.Having just divorced her husband Dan Lambeth, Charles Edward Powell, Alexandra decided to start over and move into her empty mother's brownstone. It was there some twenty years ago where Alexandra's Aunt Judith, Danette Mackay, was murdered with her mom Evelyn being the major suspect in her death. Since then Evelyn had completely lost her marbles and was committed to a mental institution never having to stand trial for her crime. What's even more shocking is that little Alexandra witnessed the murder and had that memory totally repressed in her fragile young mind.With all these suppressed memories, after visiting her mother, flooding Alexandra's brain the real killer of Aunt Judith comes out into the open to silence her, as well as Mrs. Kent, forever in order to keep the secret of his crime still secret! A secret that's been hidden in a secret room at the Kent brownstone for some twenty years. That Alexandra has had the key to but never realized it until now!The secrets about the secret of the late Aunt Judith's murder are so many that by the time the movie is finally over a number of other persons who had nothing to do with the secret, including Dan Lambeth, end up dying because of it. Alexandra with the help of her mom's psychiatrist Dr. Mike Stanheight, David Keeley, does in fact uncover the secret. But not until Alexandra gets put on the right track by the kindly and understanding, in him taking all the uncalled for abuse from her, construction worker Ed, Richard Jutras, who knew abut the secret, or the key that uncovered it, all along.***SPOILER***As things turned out the big secret wasn't that big of a secret to begin with in knowing who Aunt Judith's murderer is. Since you could practically spot him as soon as he popped into the movie with his overly and unnatural interest in the entire matter which shouldn't have been any of his business anyway.If the guy just laid low and played innocent, or ignorant, of what was going on all around him he may well have gotten away with it; Aunt Judith, and those who followed her into their graves, murder. That fact, being the busybody that he was, sealed his fate at the end of the film.

The TV synopsis sounded quite interesting and having noted that Kirsty Swanson was in it I was more than willing to give the movie a try. I recorded this with the intent on watching it when I was relaxed and in the mood for something interesting but I have to say that I was really dismayed at what I was watching.To be fair to the movie I do have to say that the plot was interesting and in effect it was the only thing that kept me watching till the end. But that's about all I can say in the movie's favour. A poor screenplay and lousy dialogue lines did little to disguise the awful direction. What's worse is that the actors allowed themselves to contribute to the overall effort with some truly lousy acting. Whatever views I had about Kirsty's acting abilities went out of the window with this movie. For most of the movie she sounded as though she been in a screaming match and then had a strangling match with someone- she sounded that hoarse. Her attempts at emoting left a lot to be desired about. I think that it's time she decided to give up acting and try something else.The rest of the cast were just as bad, if not worse. In truth this movie was just a cut above the standard soap opera fare- a lot of bad hamming to no effect.As I mentioned above the plot is the only thing that is good for the movie but having said that you can quickly figure out what's going on close to half way through the movie. I haven't clicked on the spoiler column as there aren't any major spoilers and even those plot points could be used to emphasize the overall poorness of the movie. I only gave this one star out of ten because I couldn't assign half stars and that is all this movie is really worth- half a star.I would not recommend this movie to anyone but truly die hard fans of Kirtsy Swanson. To the rest of the viewing public- watching paint dry is a lot more fun...and easier on the eyes.

Definitely not a run of the mill thriller. Provocative, engaging and intelligent ..these are all the necessary ingredients this film needs to keep the viewer hooked from the first few frames.Kristy Swanson spares no emotion from being expressed on the screen, running the gambit from sadness to anger and unbeguilingly gives fans and viewers the chance for her to show off her raw talent.Very watchable and I am sure her strong character is a real inspiration to women everywhere....standing up for her self against seemingly insurmountable odds. Love to give a spoiler here but see it for your self. Recommended viewing.Have a little chocolate with your popcorn with this film; would work well on a rainy rainy night...nice love scenes, too for Kristy woo hoo :)