LD Entertainment, Exclusive Media Group, Pioneer Pictures,
Elizabeth Olsen, Oscar Isaac, Tom Felton, Jessica Lange, Shirley Henderson, Matt Lucas, Mackenzie Crook, John Kavanagh
Therese (Elizabeth Olsen) is in a loveless arranged marriage with her cousin Camille (Tom Felton). Camille is sickly and has no affection to show for Terese. But when his old friend Laurent (Oscar Issac) comes to visit Terese quickly falls in love with him as he’s got all the things she wished for in a lover. But Camille’s mother (Jessica Lange) is watching her like a hawk, and when tragedy strikes, things go from bad to worse.
This is a period drama created from the novel by Emile Zola, and has a great cast. The story is like many of the other novels of the era, but in some ways is a more interesting story. We really can hardly blame any of the characters in this story. It’s one of those things that was bound to happen. The old saying “Be careful what you wish for as you just might get it” really applies to this story. Lust and passion lead to tragedy and regret as it often does. Once we obtain what we think we wanted, we often find that we don’t want it quite that much. Jessica Lange is really excellent in this story as she plays the overbearing mother that has turned Camille into a real mama’s boy. But Elizabeth Olsen also nails her part as a flitty and light minded girl, not quite grown up who’s forced to grow up in a hurry. There is a lot of tragedy, but it’s a good romance story and the period costumes are really well done. All in all it’s a decent movie with a relatively unknown (at least lesser known) story that makes it fun to watch. I usually do not like movies like this, but I have to admin it was happy to sit through this one. I had my reservations about a Gothic novel, but I was happy that I did. I got myself a little bit of culture at the same time!
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
Movie Review - In Secret (2013) {R},
