A Secret

An addition to the ever-expanding roster of films dealing with the Holocaust in an oblique but affecting way, Claude Miller's adaptation of Philippe Grimbert's novel Memory takes a fragmented, elliptical approach to telling the story of a French Jewish family devastated by the Nazi occupation. A Secret begins in 1985 when Francois (played as an adult by Mathieu Amalric) is drawn into a situation involving his father that touches off recollections of the family dynamic 30 years earlier when Francois was a weak, timid lad with an athletically-inclined imaginary brother. Turns out Francois did have an older half-brother—his father's son by a previous wife—a truth that emerges in bits and pieces in flashbacks over the course of this tale involving extramarital longings and a tragic attempt to escape France that continues to haunt the survivors in the present day. Drawing excellent performances from both adults and children, Miller also directs with sensitivity, teasing out the undercurrents of the narrative without ever descending into mawkishness. A quietly powerful film, A Secret is recommended. (F. Swietek)