The Secrets We Keep

Imagine it. It's a sunny day. You're in the park with your family. You feel safe and loved. You couldn't be more relaxed and you have not a care in the world. Then you hear a voice, there's a timbre to it you've heard somewhere before. You turn to look and there's something very familiar about it's source, a memory you've pushed to the back of your mind. Then it hits you and your world lurches sideways and all you can hear is your blood pounding in your ears. The past comes rushing back and with it all the horror you've repressed for years. The Secrets We Keep is all about what happens next.

Maja (Noomi Rapace) has made a lovely home for herself in America. The horror of the 40's is in the past and the 1950's American post war boom is in full flow. She has job, a loving husband (Chris Messina) and a son. A vision from the past (Joel Kinnaman) then rips her world apart, forcing her to face a horror she's pushed down for nearly a decade. Following the person she realises he's now a neighbour and this jolts her into action because Maja has decided to never live in fear again.

The Secrets We Keep isn't an enjoyable watch or a good one really but it drags some suspense out of a tale of a woman regaining her agency and facing the demons of her past. If you've seen Sigourney Weaver's 1994 movie Death And The Maiden you'll have an idea of what's ahead of you here. It's a story about dealing with trauma, how leaving it unresolved will always mar your life and how facing it head on will help you escape the past. But to it's credit it's no simple revenge picture because here we have our characters facing the potential ripple effects of revenge, how it will affect their future and the family of the man involved. It's a story that will leave you pondering what you'd do in that situation, instead of just sitting there slack jawed as usual.

It's just a pity it's all so colourless and awkwardly written. Kinnaman's character Stowe, vehemently denies any wrong doing throughout but he's so shifty that you'll never believe him so the film just goes through the motions until inevitably truths are spilled. It's only when he gets the upper hand that the film comes to life some bit but then it's flattened again swiftly by the intervention of clueless neighbours and cops who can't seem to or willfully ignore clues staring them in the face. The plot can only move one way here and papering over the cracks with stupidity isn't helping anyone. Then we get the ending which might be called divisive by some and unearned and cheap by others. Go with the latter, it's more apt. You can see the angle writer/director Yuval Adler is going for but it just ends up pissing all over everything that came before it. This story deserved than this.

It's annoying too because Rapace and Messina do decent work as a couple facing one hell of a crisis. The pain stretched across her face, utter bewilderment across his. Had the film been brave enough to let their characters move the story forward instead of relying on silly plot points then this could have been worthwhile. Now it will just be another forgotten streaming film in a terrible year for cinema.