On its surface, “The Secrets We Keep,” a story about a European refugee who lives in a remote part of New Orleans, Louisiana, and realizes her abuser from 15 years ago is now in town, could easily sound like another variation on “Death of the Maiden.” Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll find a 1960’s thriller that shines a light on some very contemporary issues.
Directed by Yuval Adler from a script by Robert Covington, the film portrays small town U.S.A as church picnics, American flags, grassy front lawns, and then shovels under those manicured lawns to find buried, war-time secrets. With a central trio of strong, deeply rooted performances from Noomi Rapace, Chris Messina and Joel Kinnaman, the film is both a bracing thriller and a startling examination of our country just after World War II.
Rapace plays Maja, who lives with her husband Lewis (Messina) and their son in New Orleans. The nightmares have passed, but one bright, sunny afternoon she hears a familiar whistle and is sent back to the night a group of German soldiers raped her, her sister, and other women. The whistler, Thomas (Kinnaman), a worker newly-arrived in town with his wife Rachel (Amy Steimetz), claims to be Swiss. But Maja isn’t buying it, and for good reason–if he looks German, sounds German, acts German, he’s probably German. So she follows him to work.
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In a scene straight-out-of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, Maja hides behind her scarf, glasses and 1950 Chevrolet Styline as she tails Thomas to the refinery. After getting a good look at his face, she devises a plan: hit Thomas with a hammer, throw him in the trunk, shoot him, then bury him. Easy peasy, right? Not when she can’t summon the nerve to shoot and brings him home, locking him in the basement. It’s a clever if familiar scenario, one that gets a boost from Adler’s central theme of horrible things happening under the guise of postwar suburbia.
“The Secrets We Keep” is an interconnected tale that spans back to 1945, give or take, jumping between Maja torturing Thomas in the basement and Thomas abusing Maja in Romania. The flashbacks are filmed in monochrome to hide Nazi faces, creating an air of mystery as to whether Thomas is actually the rapist, or if Maja is suffering from PTSD. “What is the likelihood that the guy who attacked you halfway around the world 15 years ago ends up two blocks away?” asks Lewis. “I would never forget those eyes!” she responds. You want to believe her. You really do. But Adler stacks piles of evidence against her.
“The Secrets We Keep” spends a little too much time undermining Maja’s story when it could have been exploring her lust for revenge. Erring on the side of mystery instead of action isn’t exactly the approach one should take when it comes to ending a thriller. However, there’s enough suspense to keep you tied to your chair, especially when the neighbors come over. There follows the “Help, I’m trapped in the basement!” moment, followed by the “Honey, did you hear that?” moment. Eventually, the neighbors leave. They don’t think twice about the noise downstairs or the spot of blood on the front door.
America’s history of sweeping tragedy under the rug, whether it be World War II, The Vietnam War or horrors closer to home, hangs over “The Secrets We Keep,” down to its final shot of pies, fireworks and smiling families. Are these families clueless of Maja’s wrong doings, or are they content with looking the other way? It’s yet another unanswerable question in a thriller that keeps you guessing. [B-]
“The Secrets We Keep” is playing in select theaters now, with a VOD release scheduled for October 16.
