En secret

It was not the first time Jessica Lange had played an overpossessive mother;just check "hush" .

The most famous French version of the novel is Marcel Carné's (1953)starring Simone Signoret and Raf Vallone ;in both versions ,it's the mother-in law who walks out with the honors and literally blows her co-stars off the stage :both Sylvie and Lange are the stand-outs .

Whereas Carné's version was transferred to modern times and sometimes dramatically wandered from the novel ,this one is much more faithfull. Locating the action in the 19th century was more relevant for at the time an orphan girl without a dowry had little choice :her marriage with sickly Camille made more sense than in the fifties .The pictures depicting the gloomy shop are dark and close to a living hell where the poor wife finds solace "in secret" between two domino games ;these games are given a convincing treatment and as one of the players says :"it smells mortuary" and not only because he works in such a lugubrious place.

The Lange /Tom Felton (who sometimes recall Terence Stamp)pair overshadows somewhat the lovers ; Madame Raquin is in awe of (and in love with) her offspring and afraid to be alone (hence the second marriage).But in the second part,if look could kill,hers certainly would.

located first near Vernon ,Normandy ,although the landscapes do not evoke this region ,but the cinematography on location is really dazzling.

Young Therese (later played by Elizabeth Olsen) is left in the custody of her aunt Madame Raquin (Jessica Lange) by her father who leaves for Africa. Madame Raquin knows that he will never return and assigns Therese to be the caregiver to her sickly son Camille. Time passes by and Therese gets used to the life of confinement in the Raquin home, caring for Camille (Tom Felton) and eventually surrenders to an arranged and unexciting marriage to him. Then comes an opportunity dor the family to move from Vernon to Paris where Camille gets a clerical job, Madame Raquin rents a shop and sets up their home upstairs. One evening, Camille brings home his old friend Laurent (Oscar Isaac), a dark haired, handsome man, and a new world of excitement and adultery beckons Therese. Laurent and Therese embark on a clandestine and passionate affair that spells doom for Camille as they together hatch a plan to eliminate him.

Everything proceeds according to their plan with Camille out of the way, and the family's well wishers insist upon Therese now marrying Laurent, looking at the misery of the women, of course totally unaware of the sinister plot that led to the situation. Once married, however, the couple is soon consumed by the guilt of their crime and the ominous presence of Camille's shadow in the relationship turns matters bitter. During one such friction, Madame Raquin also learns about the truth and turns antagonistic, albeit she can do little as she is now paralyzed physically.

"In Secret" is an adaptation of the novel Therese Raquin written by Emile Zola, and could have been a tragedy of an epic Shakespearean dimension. The drama noir is accentuated by the dark setting in Paris with a depressing and poorly illuminated shop and house above. Director Charlie Stratton however makes a half hearted attempt to capitalize on the dark setting and the resultant mood with an unconvincing treatment of the psychological tussle with conscience, thus turning the tragedy into a rather soft and mellow climax. Not enough was done to delineate the "blood on the hands" state of the doomed couple that could have emphasized the extreme consequence of the once passionate relationship. Elizabeth Olsen and Oscar Isaac do their bit, but Jessica Lange is the showstopper here with a powerful portrayal of Madame Raquin, a controlling matriarch with firm hands on the reins of her family.

If you suppress sexuality and love long enough, it will break out eventually. And this is what happens here at some point. There are some very racy scenes, that while we do not get so much naked flesh to see, might be a bit too much for some viewers. Love can be freeing, but it can also be like a prison.

And while we do probably have the one Olsen sister who can actually act in this, this might be too much even for her. Especially towards the end, her act seems to be breaking (no pun intended). It gets pretty weird too, too weird maybe for some, but that's something you'll have to see for yourself. I kinda liked it, though the characters seem to lose a bit of their credibility. But it happens ... or it could happen

I liked it. I think it's pretty Shakespearean, so if you enjoy those kind of stories, you will like this one. Great acting.

Paris during a past century. A woman is slowly dying in a loveless marriage but what can she do? She accepts her fate and goes on until the possibility of romance and passion comes her way. Then everything changes and she becomes prepared to do the unthinkable, but is the man she has fallen for a better bet than the husband for whim she has no love?

The location and costumes gave it an aura of authenticity as well as having a very potent storyline makes for an intriguing viewing experience. The let down comes from the fact that it is Hollywood making an epoch film. The way the characters are introduced and the plot develops is way too fast to create the impact it should.

"In secret" is a very poignant title, all evolving around a woman. She is drowning in her marriage...in secret, she meets and falls for another man...in secret, she goes out of her depth to be free of her husband and be with the one she loves...in secret. When the secret is revealed, the whole situation collapses like a pack of cards.