The Secret

British housewife Emma Faraday (Haydn Gwynne) has spent years keeping a deep, dark secret from everyone, including her husband Alex (Robert Bathurst). Even so, her life seems to be nearly perfect—loving spouse, satisfying career, healthy and happy children—until a figure from her past drops in unexpectedly to muck everything up. Once Nadia Collins (Stella Gonet) was a close friend, but now she's a bitter, vengeful woman who uses her knowledge of the past to destroy everything Emma holds dear. Although originally broadcast by the BBC, this 2002 thriller resembles the sort of fare you'd see here on Lifetime or Bravo, and while its rather familiar theme keeps filmmaker Alrick Riley's The Secret from being a really first-rate melodrama, the movie sports excellent performances—especially by Gonet, whose femme fatale is perhaps the film's single biggest asset. Recommended, overall. (E. Hulse)