My review was written in August 1984 after watching the film in a Midtown Manhattan screening room.
"Secrets" is a diverting, ultimately moving little comedy-drama made in 1982 as part of the British "First Love" series of telefilms made by David Puttnam. Well-directed by Gavin Millar, pic' theatrical future Stateside via Samuel Goldwyn Company is limited, though art house returns loom okay.
While maintaining the period romance format and young protagonist structure of the "First Love" series, "Secrets" departs in focusing on a mother-daughter relationship rather than a boy-meets-girl pairing. Set in 1963, Noella Smith's script concerns 13-year-old Louise (Anna Campbell-Jones), off to girls' boarding school after the death of her father. Mom (Helen Liindsay) is a middle-aged woman, having given birth to Louise late in life.
Key plot diversion is the discovery by Louise of her father's secret books and materials of the Masonic Lodge, which she hides and takes to school with her. There, she initiates her girlfriend Sydney (Daisy Cockburn) and later classmates Jane (Lucy Gode) and brainy but nerdy Trottie (Rebecca Johnson) in her interpretations of the rituals of Freemasons, made grotesque and comical by the girls' misunderstanding of the secret book's codes and abbreviations.
While Louise is learning the usual lessons in friendship and integrity at school, film's comic force derives from mom's jumping to the wrong conclusions when she finds a box of condoms in Louise's room at home. Not knowing that the contraceptive devices were innocently found (and misidentified as balloons) by Louise among daddy's kit of masonic materials, mom believes her daughter has been sexually involved with her 18-year-old cousin Paul and assumes the "trouble" she's having at school is a pregnancy. By the time the confusion is sorted out, "Secrets" turns briefly and movingly into a serious vein, as Louise realizes her close bond to her elderly mother and the importance of preserving for mom an untarnished memory of her presumably errant late husband.
As the mother, Helen Lindsay turns in a terrific performance, maximizing both the comic and sentimental nature of the material. Young players are okay, adhering to the lowkey thesping that typifies this series. Tech credits are suitable, though pic lacks period atmosphere, relying on verbal references, costuming and hairstyles to evoke the 1963 milieu.
