The Secret [Blu-ray] | ![The Secret [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515Jn06w7sL._SL500_.jpg)
| Director: Vincent Perez
Actors: David Duchovny, Lili Taylor, Olivia Thirlby
Studio: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
Category: DVD
List Price: $35.98
Buy New: $24.95
You Save: $11.03 (31%)
New (9) Used (2) from $24.95
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 3555
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Blu-ray
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 92 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 014381507959
EAN: 0014381507959
ASIN: B0019X3YUA
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
Release Date: August 26, 2008 (New: This Week)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Compared to pallid supernatural romances like Ghost, The Secret is a fireball of Freudian pathos about a love triangle between parents Benjamin (David Duchovny) and Hannah Marris (Lili Taylor), and their teenage daughter, Samantha (Olivia Thirlby). Directed by Swiss actor Vincent Perez, The Secret succeeds where other cheesy ghost films fail because there is always the possibility that after Benjamin's wife, Hannah, dies in a car accident and comes back to inhabit her daughter's body, Benjamin will be lured into his daughter's arms by sheer grief commingled with desire. The film's operates with increasing tension throughout, starting when Benjamin decides to believe that Sam is temporarily not Sam, but his wife. There are sappy scenes, such as when Sam, as mother Hannah, returns to high school following the accident and flails terribly in teenage situations. But the notion of a mother spying on her daughter through possession recalls Mommie Dearest, in a great way. The real credit in this film goes to Thirlby, who in essence plays two characters well, switching identities throughout. The sexual innuendo she brings to the part adds the zest The Secret needs to elevate it from a suburban nightmare to real horror. Viewers who enjoy The Secret might also look to Argento's mother trilogy, or the recently released French horror film, Inside. That said. The Secret contains no gore and relies on psychological suspense rather than violence to construct its mother/daughter tale. --Trinie Dalton
Product Description
In the spirit of Ghost and Birth, Hannah and Benjamin (Lili Taylor, Six Feet Under and David Duchovny, The X-Files) are a happily married couple whose love is tested in ways they never could have imagined in this touching supernatural drama. But when Hannah is killed in a car accident, the couple's strong bond may be responsible for an unusual twist of fate that keeps their love alive -- at the expense of their daughter (Olivia Thirlby, Juno).
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
Weird is right August 27, 2008
JD (VA)
Agree with other reviewer who said this movie is just weird.
Putting aside that the look and feel of this movie is kind of low-budget, after-school special kind of cheap, I tried to focus on the story and the acting.
Olivia Thirlby, who plays the young daughter/possessed by mom's ghost did a very impressive job of making both characters seem very real. Lily Taylor turns in a fine performance - and looks great, more attractive than any of her past roles (wondering if she had work done?) There were times in this movie when both actresses really moved me. David Duchovny... sigh. I am a fan. But every time I see him he just seems so one dimensional. It's like he IS Fox Mulder. I almost laughed when he went to the library to look up possession.
The "lovey dovey" nature of the marriage that they set up at the beginning is a little too much. It might have been more interesting if these folks had a REAL marriage, with conflict and difficulty, and spent their last few months together after the wife's bodily death, working out their issues and saying goodbye instead of acting like a couple of jealous teens. What a rare chance to linger after your own death and get to say the things you never said.
The idea that the mom goes on with the daughter's life and acts like a teenager was a little too "Freaky Friday". They could have done more with the confusion of how to mourn the death of one body, and disappearance of another soul, the soul of a beloved child. You'd like to think it would take a little more time before mom starts smoking pot and going to frat parties when she's in her little girl's body, looking for her daughter's soul.
And the idea of the wife/daughter trying to seduce her husband/dad is just gross. It would have been nice if they had made the tension more about their emotional losses and less about sexual frustration. Thankfully the dad character doesn't go for it.
Overall not great but worth watching for those who are interested in Duchovny's work.
"A 36 year old woman in a 16 year old's body. I'm every man's dream." August 25, 2008
J. H. Minde (Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York)
THE SECRET is a bit weird and disturbing. David Duchovny's wife and daughter, essentially estranged from each other, are in a horrific car crash. The daughter dies. The distraught wife dies at the same moment crying her daughter's name. Mysteriously, the daughter recovers, only she's no longer Duchovny's daughter, she's Duchovny's wife in their daughter's body.
So far so weird. But THE SECRET, a bizarre take on FREAKY FRIDAY, gets a little disturbing as the Mrs. settles into her daughter's life, discovering (or rediscovering) the joys of being sixteen, including sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. She also sleeps with (but doesn't seduce) Duchovny, but the intimate adult-to-adult conversations between husband/father and wife/daughter are enough to make your skin crawl, since the line, though never crossed, is toed very tightly.
There is a denoument, but to tell it would be to ruin the ending, and THE SECRET doesn't deserve to be ruined. It is worth watching, though the moral of the story is, unsurprisingly, a bit murky.
Borders on Creepy..... August 24, 2008
Mommabookworm (Ca.)
While this movie doesn't quite cross the line (comes damn close), its hard to get past the creepiness of a Dad cuddling, and behaving in an intimate way with his daughter. The big revelation that the mom learns about her daughter is not so interesting. The daughter is nothing but a slut and druggie.
Movie is just ok. Worthy of a rental, but barely.
Shhhhhhhhh August 23, 2008
lady detective (east coat)
The Secret is not some skin-a-max David Duchovony perv fest, as the cover is begging us to believe... instead a teenage girl and her mother (amazing Lily Taylor) are in a horrible car accident. During the moment of the girls death the mother transfers herself into the body of her daughter. The daughter lives. The mother dies. The mother is inside the daughter. Is the daughter there, too? That's the premise. It's more of a mother daughter drama than a spookfest. Little is spoken of ghosts, spirituality, scientifc reasoning, etc. Suspension of disbelief is key. Olivia Thirbly, who plays the embodiment of mother and daughter, is really good and fun to watch. The topic could have been taken to a creepy incestual place, and although the dynamics of daughter/ wife/ husband/ father are explored, it's managed at a safe distance. Basically? Brain candy.
 Good movie, sad but good!! August 20, 2008
L. McGriff (Phx, AZ)
This is a very good movie. It is kind of freaky fridayish but not done in a way for laughs it is done to capture the human, dramatic side. It never gets creepy.The film is done in a way that really evokes thoughts, feelings and empathy. Well acted, scripted and directed. Brilliant movie!!
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