'The Secrets We Keep' Review: Noomi Rapace's psychological thriller will leave you guessing till the end
After taking her rightful revenge in the film 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo', Noomi Rapace is back with another tale of vengeance. The Swedish actress starring in Yuval Adler's psychological thriller drama 'The Secrets We Keep' will surely give you chills with her blunt and sharp expressions, even though the storyline might come as a disappointment.
The story narrates the tale of a Romanian immigrant woman, Maja, who is married to Lewis (Chris Messina). The couple met while Lewis was stationed in an army hospital in Greece after World War II. The couple lived in a small unnamed town with their son, Patrick, where Lewis' medical practice is at full bloom.
But soon, Maja's world gets shaken when she spots a stranger whom she believes participated in the assault and murder of a group of women that included her and her sister near the end of World War II, named Thomas (Joel Kinnaman).
While Maja is seen enjoying a picnic with her young son, she soon goes into high alert when she spots a tall blond man there, and in short order, she follows him home to get a better look. Peeping into the tidy house he shares with his wife and two children, she sees his face clearly and her reaction is visceral. Maja then kidnaps him and stuffs him up in her car in broad daylight.
She drives him to a remote location where she's already dug a grave, but, unable to bring herself to do the deed, she takes him home, where she imprisons him in the basement and demands his confession of crimes. Thomas replies saying that he is a Swiss and Maja is confused about his identity. This scene resonates a lot with the 1959 thriller film, 'North by Northwest', in which Cary Grant is mistaken for someone he is not.
Maja also informs her husband about it incident and tells him that she recognized him as one of the Nazis who caught her and her sister towards the end of the war and harassed both of them before killing Maja's sister. This news comes as a shock for Lewis as this was all new to him, as he previously believed, that she never saw so much as a frown during WWII. But he promptly helps his wife to tie Thomas in the basement while he still questions her memory and her method of getting him to confess.
Rapace did an incredible job with her on-point expressions and her portrayal of a strong woman, who wants to avenge the death of her sister. The title of the film, 'The Secrets We Keep' has not done quite a justice, as even though Maja comes out as someone beholding secrets from the past, from her husband for so many years, the film failed to answer the major question in the film which is, Was Thomas actually involved in the crime?
Watch the 97-minute film 'The Secrets We Keep' on Video on demand (VOD) on October 16.