REVIEW - IN SECRET (CHARLIE STRATTON)

Whom am I to suppose about a filmmaker's intentions? Goodness knows they didn't make their film for me, and if I am incapable of discerning precisely what they wished to communicate within that film, then whom am I to criticise them? Well, actually, I'm whomever I want to be in that situation, since no film, to me, is as it was intended to be. It's what I appreciated it to be. Perhaps Charlie Stratton audaciously intended to design out of Emile Zola's Therese Raquin an abstruse, tonally inconsistent piece of insipid chick-lit, broad and obvious in its tonal construction yet baffling in its presentation of its characters. Perhaps In Secret is the ultimate in bad taste, defiling a major artistic work from a literary giant in crudely combining pompous highbrow affectation with a mundanity of style that too often comes as part of the package with period adaptations. Perhaps so, but I appreciated no evidence to support any of that, and thereby did not feel admiration for Stratton's audacity since it doesn't exist here. Indeed, In Secret is a cold, clean rejection of audacity, turning a blind eye to all opportunities for creative filmmaking, repeatedly favouring the kind of lifeless, airless style that must have came with the corsets. True to form, then, the film is handsomely designed, yet to so little consequence, since that's so entirely expected. Florian Hoffmeister's cinematography is pleasant, but of no apparent narrative purpose beyond making sure we can see what's happening; Gabriel Yared's score is genial, but derivative (does Gabriel Yared of all people actually need to rip from other composers?). Their efforts are monumental, however, when held against Stratton's. He shuns the philosophical depth that was an innate part of Zola's prose and thrusts all of his characters' actions to the front of their minds and the tips of their tongues. Major character shifts appear to occur, with no motivation offered, no reason supplied. If it was his intention to leave us in the lurch, then fine. Here's my review, direct from the lurch.