The Secrets We Keep Movie Review: Ripped but nothing like Ripley

A still from The Secrets We Keep

The Secrets We Keep
A: Drama, thriller
Dir: Yuval Adler
Cast: Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman, Chris Messina, Amy Seimetz
Rating:

Aiming for Death and the Maiden like suspense thrills, director Yuval Adler mines Nazi war-time atrocities (for effect), but the end result doesn't quite make it a worthy cause.

It's post-World War II in small-town USA, year 1959, and we see a Romano Gypsy woman Maja (Noomi Rapace of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fame), rebuilding her life in the suburbs with her American husband Lewis (Chris Messina playing a physician doing check-ups of the workmen), and their little son. But it doesn't take long for that seemingly idyllic setting to unravel.

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It's 15 years since the repressions of the war. So what are the chances of her recognising a voice and shadowy face from the war as belonging to that of one of the factory workers' (Joel Kinnaman) in her township? Especially after we get to know that the suspect has a different identity from what she remembers and is married, has a wife and young daughter whom he dotes on. Incidentally, the man says his name is Thomas and, that he is Swiss. The premise here wants us to believe that a traumatised victim suffering from various mental health issues will perforce, engage in kidnapping a strapping big worker and keep him tied-up and tortured until he confesses to his crime (against her family and her). In shadowy flashbacks, the narrative fleetingly reprises those harrowing moments. She, her younger sister and many others were repeatedly raped by German soldiers and most were shot dead. Maja managed to escape though.

The script is so without guile that everything just falls in place a little too quick and easy. Lewis the husband, while not exactly overjoyed at keeping a man captive in the basement of his home, is willing to give his wife enough leeway to ferret out a confession. Maja even goes to the extent of befriending her victim's family in order to scoop out the shadowy links in his story. There are disturbing issues central to this telling but much of it is presented with such casual nonchalance that you just don't feel interested in what transpires eventually. The climax feels like a cop-out. Character build-up is facile and the representation by the actors makes it look like they are all on auto-pilot and just doing a job they are least interested in. The dialogue written by Adler and Ryan Covington are so simple-minded that there is no deeper meaning to be had from any of the conversations. The atmospherics seem bland - not the oppressive that was required and there is hardly any tension in the byplay. The straight-forward revenge treatment makes it predictable and unconvincing altogether. Kolja Brandt's camerawork feels tame despite the fancy movements. The production design, the story development, the treatment are cursory and extremely simplistic. Frankly there's nothing profound here to latch on to!

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