The Secrets We Keep is the upcoming drama/thriller from director Yuval Adler (Bethlehem), and co-written with Ryan Covington (making his feature debut). It stars Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Joel Kinnaman (Altered Carbon), and Chris Messina (Argo).
Living a quiet life with her husband in post-WWII America, Maja (Rapace) is shocked to hear a familiar whistling while enjoying a day at the park. This brings traumatic memories of the horrific abuse she and her family suffered at the hands of a group of German soldiers flooding back. Convinced that the whistler (Kinnaman) was one of those soldiers, she kidnaps him and holds him prisoner, determined to wring a confession out of him by any means necessary and make him pay for his crimes.
The official plot synopsis is as follows:
In post-WWII America, a woman (Noomi Rapace), rebuilding her life in the suburbs with her husband (Chris Messina), kidnaps her neighbor (Joel Kinnaman) and seeks vengeance for the heinous war crimes she believes he committed against her.
Let’s take a look:
I think this looks like a solid drama/thriller feature. It’s well shot and the performances seem good, my only real concern would be regarding the plot. If you’ve watched enough TV series and/or movies over the years you’ll have seen this basic plot played out quite a few times already, and we know how it’ll go – certainty, doubt, “I’m not crazy!”, the prisoner slips up, and vindication. Unless they throw in a massively unexpected curveball when the truth is finally laid bare, which I doubt, that’s more-or-less how it’ll play out. That doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy the movie though, because the enjoyment comes from watching it all unfold.
And spare a thought for poor Joel Kinnaman, he seems to have become the go-to actor for being brutally tortured – first Netflix’s Altered Carbon, then Amazon’s Hanna, now this.
What do you think?
The Secrets We Keep is due for release in limited US theatres on 16 September before heading to on-demand on 16 October. It also stars Amy Seimetz, Lucy Faust, Victoria Hill, David Maldonado, and Jeff Pope.
Last Updated: August 19, 2020
