Released: August 12th, 2008
Starring: Olivia Thirlby, David Duchovny, Lili Taylor
Writer/Director: Ann Cherkis/Vincent Perez
Description: A wife and mother passes away, and her spirit returns in her daughter's body.
[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]
***
It was kind of convenient that two body switching movies ended up back to back, and I thank the Netflix gods for it. Watching different types of body switching has given me some perspective on what is good and bad about the genre. It's just like every other type of film, and may not be as much of a crutch as I originally thought.
"The Secret" is the best straight to DVD film I've ever seen. The story is complex and compelling and the performances are fantastic. It takes body switching to a place where it can tell a good story, and not a cliche plot. After a car accident, Hannah (Taylor) injects her daughter, Samantha (Thirlby), with her conscience so that she can live. The movie continues on as most mother-daughter body switching movies do, but without the annoying older actress trying to be "young" (looking at you, Jamie Lee Curtis).
The slow transition of Hannah as Sam from scared to enjoyment is well paced. The 91 minute running time was perfect; even a minute longer would have been overkill. They end the story right, and somehow trims any meaningless scenes. Each moment propels the movie to the next action or conflict, and they avoided the trap of using sex, whether it be adulterous or incestuous, to create conflict.
This movie would be nothing without the breakout performance from one of my favorites, Olivia Thirlby. She portrayed two completely different characters, and didn't look out of place in either role. This is usually the big flaw with body-switching movie: one of the actors can't play the opposite role. Either the teen actor can't reproduce the complex emotions of a middle age woman, or the older actress plays a parody of a teen.
The exclusion of the second body in this film is how "Secret" separates itself from other movies like it. There's even a lack of a dialogue between the affected parties, which is the twist of "Dream a Little Dream". The lack of this narrative crutch is what enhanced my interest in the movie. Even the ending was precise and understandable. The idea of "Hannah" while she is still Sam making a videotape was ingenious and was the perfect way to have the moment of understanding between the body-switchers without some weird ghost scene.
"The Secret" is one of those films that fell through the cracks for reason unknown. There is nothing about this film that should have forced it to be a direct-to-video film. The direction was solid, the music and visuals were great, and the performances of Duchovny and Thirlby were sublime. The writing wasn't Oscar-worthy, but it was a B+ and should have caught someone's eye. It reminded me that "Deadfall"got a theatrical release, but this movie is probably in the three-dollar bin at Best Buy.
Rating: 7/10 -- If you aren't convinced that Thirlby is a talented actress after this film, then you should stop watching movies. There's no stand out emotional moment, but rather it's a slow build that draws you in and makes you want to care about the outcome.
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