The Secrets We Keep is a patient psychological mystery set in a quiet post-WWII suburb where a housewife (Noomi Rapace, Prometheus, 2012) starts to unravel when she suspects a new man living in her town is a Nazi who tortured her during WWII years ago. This suspicion leads to kidnapping, interrogation, and blood. And when suspicion grows into an obsession with vengeance, nobody walks unscathed.
This film has a similar vibe to the horror triumph Misery (1990) and has almost identical themes to the mystery film Death and the Maiden (1994). The Secrets We Keep has a mood of tension and hostility sustained well throughout, but the tension doesn't increase or build much. It just stays the same, which causes the narrative energy to feel lacking in the film's latter half.
Instead of creating a sense of mounting fear or danger, this film tugs the viewer back and forth to side with the captor in some moments and the prisoner in others. That tug-of-war element of this film is engaging, but it's a shame The Secrets We Keep couldn't achieve a more fulfilling crescendo or that the original screenplay couldn't have been sharpened further.
The film was okay. Somewhere between disaster and success. Currently, it's a strong piece of restrained, dark, intimate Oscar bait. But The Secrets We Keep will likely get overshadowed soon as other "serious" films (more dramatic, more exciting, and more dynamic films) are released in the coming weeks.
