Sourire en coin

This show is 1.5 decades old but I just watched it and mostly for Tennant. The rest of the cast was good, and I especially like John Bowe (Miranda's father).

All that being said, the ending was daft and completely unrealistic. That, alone, ruined it all for me.

Oh, Secret Smile. I love you, but hesitate to recommend you. The last time I did online, I got so much static. And the criticism were mostly valid: it's exploitative, the plot relies on everyone aside from the leads behaving as stupidly as possible, some aspects of mental illness and the legal system are depicted inaccurately, and more. But the main reason why people hate it is because it presses their buttons. Brendan is both very attractive and the ultimate nightmare stalker, and viewers -- not to mention the other characters -- are pushed and pulled between their conflicting feelings about that. When you think about it, it's clever, because it's similar to the push/pull people sometimes feel for their stalker, often an ex that they struggle to get away from, and stay away. Claire's character is less vulnerable than most people, and tries to get out fast, but even so, Brendan insinuates himself into her life. And that is frankly, frightening. Look: I've been stalked twice in my life. I'm far from believing "this can happen to anyone" and victims are helpless, but anyone can be sucked into a stalker's game for a time. And if it hasn't happened to them, the people around you won't understand completely. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said "have you told him to leave you alone?" So I can say with confidence that Brendan's dialogue and behaviour, at least in the early part of the show is realistic. If you can appreciate this show as a crazy nightmare with a core of reality, you will not only enjoy it, but also have some food for thought.

The previous review is grossly unfair. It's a reasonably good drama of its type, some normal people and a disruptive presence suddenly appears in their lives, how do they all react? Sure, some of US may have reacted differently and said different things, you could say that of any film or play! The police appear terminally dim? Well, goodness, that's hardly a novelty on film or TV either?! Tennant is suitably nasty as the evil presence, nicely persuasive and threatening when he can't quite get his own way. The parents are well-played, many people want to see the best side of friends and acquaintances, and the sisters are also good performances. There'd have been lots of different possible endings, go with the flow and see what the author chose!

I have a degree in architecture-but I don't go around claiming to be an architect. So let me be clear: if you're watching Secret Smile with a psychology degree in one hand and a checklist of forensic realism in the other, you're missing the point entirely.

This is not a procedural. This is a psychological thriller. And like real psychological abuse, it doesn't unfold in a courtroom-it unfolds in gaslit family dinners, charming smiles that hide rot, and the unbearable silence when no one believes you.

David Tennant's performance as Brendan is chilling because it's real. If you've ever dealt with a sociopath, a narcissist, or someone who weaponizes charm, you know exactly how fast they get into your life-and how easily they turn your friends and family against you.

Some reviewers complain about the victim being "slutty" or "selfish." Let me translate that for you: she wasn't obedient enough to be palatable. She had sex, she had fear, and she had no perfect script. That's not a flaw in the writing. That's accurate.

And the family not believing her? Also accurate. Because this is how emotional abusers operate: they isolate, they ingratiate, and they discredit the victim while smiling through the front door.

If you thought the ending was "unrealistic," you've clearly never been cornered. Never had to plan your own escape because no one else would help. The blood twist isn't fantasy-it's desperation turned into strategy.

To the American audience expecting clear heroes and villains, digestible diagnoses, and perfect courtroom monologues: go back to your network dramas. Secret Smile isn't here to comfort you. It's here to show you how evil wears a grin, and how survival doesn't come wrapped in justice-it comes wrapped in scars and silence.

This story hit me hard because I've lived through gaslighting. I've seen charm weaponized. And I know exactly what it means to walk away with no vindication-just the knowledge that you made it out alive.

So if you hated this show? Maybe it was too close to home. Maybe that discomfort wasn't the show's failure-it was your signal to pay attention.

Oh, Yawn. Not another chick flick where the men are all pigs and the women will get even for the abuse they suffered. The only difference is that, in this film, everybody's a pig or has mush for brains. I hated this film for the moral issue of why it's right to send a man to prison for life for a murder he didn't commit. Is that a more immoral act than his abuse and deviousness. This movie shows all the situational ethics of bad writing. I saw it on the CBC's "Best of Britain" series. If this is Britain's best, no wonder the British film industry is in trouble.

The only bright spot in this film was David Tennant, He plays his character as so despicable that I'm likely to spit on the next person who speaks with a Scottish accent. Kate Ashfield tries to play the victim but comes off in the end as immorally devious as David Tennant's character. They deserve each other.

In the mush for brains category are the parents who see nothing wrong with the obviously psychotic Brendan. English policemen are made out to be so incompetent that they're unfit to give out traffic tickets. The British Policeman's Union should sue the makers of this film for defamation.

This film isn't worth the electricity it takes to run your DVD to watch it.