His humor is your torture, but after he's stopped, you find yourself begging for more. A similar cycle of pain and pleasure lies at the heart of Leigh's latest tragicomic dissection of the British middle class, Secrets and Lies . When the whole clan gathers for Roxanne's 21st birthday party, the reunion plays like a darker, more painful episode of All in the Family. However situational the comedy, Leigh characteristically keeps his audience off balance with discomfiting clarity. He finds inspiration in his character's vulnerability, their mundane lives, their unspoken desperation.
Race is barely an issue.
What keeps the film from collapsing into tear-stained melodrama is the amazing naturalness of all the actors involved. They offer such fully fleshed-out performances that you could almost guess the kind of underwear each character wears. Her expression while sifting through the years to recall the fling with Hortense's father, for instance, is a gem of wordless acting, and her subsequent connection with Jean-Baptiste is true and warm. Spall, the film's unsung hero, gives Maurice a gentle and truly compassionate soul. It is, however, an unusually upbeat film for an auteur whose body of work is essentially glum and glummer.