The Secret

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).

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars music?
I’m a huge Duchovny fan, and he was great in this… it’s definitely a very interesting film, and worth renting, imo.

I’m wondering about certain music that was used in the film though– specifically, what are the songs in the following scenes: a) when Hannah and Ben are kissing on the couch on their “night alone,” b) when Sam/Hannah asks Ben to dance with her, when she’s in the nightgown, and c) when Sam/Hannah does the shot at the party.

Any help?

3 Stars The Secret - Blu-ray Info
Version: U.S.A / Region-A

MPEG-4 AVC BD-25 / High Profile 4.1

Running time: 1:31:46

Movie size: 18,028,781,568 bytes

Disc size: 23,827,206,008 bytes

Average video bit rate: 19.98 Mbps

DTS-HD Master Audio English 4084 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 4084kbps (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 1536kbps)

Dolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 640kbps

Subtitles: English SDH / Spanish

Number of chapters: 12

5 Stars Very well acted
I am rather surprised at the reviews. I thought the acting was completely solid. You knew when it was the mother and when it was the daughter. I must admit I was nervous about the couple consummating since it was known beforehand that the girl would come back to inhabit the body but other than that it was great. Although it is reminiscent of Freaky Friday it is smarter. I truly enjoyed the movie.

4 Stars The Secret-fascinating take on an old movie theme
The Secret is a fascinating take on a old theme, soul migration, used in many films. But where it’s usually played for laughs in films like “Freaky Friday”, this film tries to delve into the consequences for a loving couple and their daughter. It’s a love story on two levels…The love of the mother and father which acts as both source of strength and temptation; the love of the mother and the father for their daughter which must inevitably separate the couple forever if they are to reclaim their daughter’s soul.

Hannah, the mother, played by Lili Taylor, is a would-be photographer and housewife who gave up her education when she fell in love and bore a daughter, Samantha (Sam) at a very young age. Her relationship with her ophthalmologist husband, Benjamin, played by David Duchovny, is loving and strong but she is having great difficulty in her relationship to daughter Sam, played by Olivia Thirlby, a rebellious teenager who brushes off her mother’s protectiveness and despises her lack of ambition. A tragic accident leaves both near death but when Hannah emerges from a coma to find Sam slipping away in the ER, in trying to save her daughter she somehow projects her soul into the girl’s body and is trapped there while her body dies. On waking in Sam’s body, she’s horrified but her condition is dismissed as the result of trauma and psychological strain. Once home with Ben, however, she gradually persuades him to believe her story.

The film is hardly the horror tale a reviewer claimed earlier…And though it’s a spoiler…It should be noted it does not cross a certain sexual line in the relationship of father and mother/daughter, though it plays intriguingly on the border. Although once accepting the transfer Hannah at first seeks to rekindle her relationship with her husband, after she and Ben learn that Sam’s soul may still be buried within her she is persuaded by Ben that she must resume Sam’s life in the hope that their daughter will revive over time. After initial bewilderment at the life of a modern teenager, Hannah begins to immerse herself in Sam’s life, learning that her daughter was leading a secret and dangerous life she and her husband knew nothing of. Eventually, her desire to keep her daughter’s existence alive combine with a mix of old resentments and raging teen hormones to begin estranging her from Ben who is increasingly fearful of again losing Hannah as well as his daughter. Both parents are tempted by the thought of resuming their life together at Sam’s expense while Hannah is further torn between the thought of building the life of her own she gave up when she married young and a refusing to let Ben move on without her. Meanwhile Ben finds himself veering between loving, overprotective father and bitterly jealous husband. Both Duchovny and Thirlby handle the need to shift tone and mood frequently in scenes very well and succeed in making the concept believable. Ms. Thirlby is especially fine in accomplishing the shifts between the Hannah and Sam personalities, she clearly has a great career ahead. Add a very moving ending and it’s a wonderful take on the idea, facing good people with impossible choices and a lovely testament to the love of a mother and father for their child. I highly recommend it.

1 Star too weird and awkward
If I could I would give this movie half a star. What an awkward movie! I had no idea when I rented this from work(blockbuster) that it was going to be that awful. A lot of people before the movie came out were asking about it, so i decided to see it to see what the hype was about. I felt the acting was terrible, Sam the 16 year old daughter that the mother’s spirit goes into plays a poor part as an adult. Frankly its just too weird seeing the daughter come on to her own dad.Although its not really her, its the mother. I turned this movie off aftering watching half of it. I didnt deem it worthy enough to watch the rest. This movie does not rent well at Blockbuster, at least the one I work at. There are far better movies out right now that you can spend $4.88 on. Please do not waste your time as I have.

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