55
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasThough his work has been little seen outside of France, writer-director Jean-Claude Brisseau's reputation as one of the most terribles of his country's filmmaking enfants precedes him. This 2002 film offers ample evidence as to why.
- 80Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasThe result is both merciless and darkly funny.
- 80VarietyLisa NesselsonVarietyLisa NesselsonThere's plenty for both the eyes and intellect to groove over in Secret Things, a taut, juicy, low-key feast of sexual and office politics filtered through helmer Jean-Claude Brisseau's customary blend of expedient formality and all-stops-out baroque behavior.
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittThe sensationalistic beginning and needless mumbo-jumbo ending aside, this is a female buddy film with bite.
- 70The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasCobbled together from borrowed parts, Jean-Claude Brisseau's Secret Things makes a fearsome Frankenstein monster out of other movies, yet the influences are so thoroughly digested that they come out seeming wholly original.
- 60TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghIt would be hard to mount a straight-faced defense of Brisseau's feverish moral tale, complete with a lurking angel of death, but the carnal machinations are hugely entertaining -- particularly if you like your skin with a bracing sermon chaser.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSkids into absurdity, but it never quite gets boring. Movies like this rarely are.
- 50Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanNeil LaBute on his worst day couldn't devise a scenario so primitive in its psychology and predictable in its sense of sin.
- 40Washington PostWashington PostA tolerably silly lark, decorated with lots of tasteful (and exclusively female) nudity. Yet as Christophe's role expands -- and the soundtrack's classical flourishes become more strident -- the film's plausibility plummets.
- 30Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonGets more operatically farcical (most of it unintentionally so) by the minute.