This week, the theme for Wanderer's Thursday Movie Picks Meme is Movies featuring some kind of family secret. The first that springs to mind is of course H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth, but since I haven't seen either of the feature adaptations (Dagon and the somewhat oddly-named Cthulhu) I'm not entirely sure if they preserve that aspect of the original story. Still, I had to find three movies that featured some form of family secret. This one was a bit of a challenge, since it depends on what you define a "family secret" as. With each I'll naturally have to make sure to explain where that part of the story fits in.
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
The family secret in this one is about as simple as you can get: a young man discovers his entire family has a long-running history of mental illness. His two "kindly" grandmothers are in fact psychotic killers who regularly invite men in, poison them with their wine, and then hide the bodies in the basement. His brother, meanwhile, is under the delusion that he is Theodore Roosevelt. He has the responsibility to "bury Yellow Fever victims in the Panama Canal" (or more accurately, dispose of the bodies of his grandmothers' murder victims in the basement), and has a habit of yelling "CHAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGEEE" every time he has to go upstairs. Cary Grant himself almost snaps in the process of trying to stay sane upon realizing all these insane things about his family.
Total Recall (1990)
This strange but fun interpretation of Philip K. Dick's short story We can Remember it for you Wholesale is a bit of a stretch but it does sort of have a family secret. The family secret of course is... that the family doesn't exist. Douglas Quaid seems to be an ordinary construction worker with a loving wife, but he keeps having dreams about Mars and decides to get artificially implanted memories about going there; with the added element of being a secret agent to make things more exciting. Unfortunately, that backfires when it turns out he may have actually been a secret agent on Mars, leading to a series of exciting chases and crazy over-the-top action scenes.
Stanley Kubrick's final film sees a family nearly torn apart by keeping secrets from each other. First we have Nicole Kidman's confession regarding her strange sexual fantasies towards a man she never met. This ends up inspiring Tom Cruise to go on a strange odyssey during the night, all while keeping it hidden from his wife. After a few failed attempts to have a sexual encounter that culminate in Cruise accidentally attending a disturbing party in which everyone is dressed ominously in robes and masks, he finally breaks down and confesses everything. Once their secrets are out they are able to get their relationship back on track.
Eyes Wide Shut
Stanley Kubrick's final film sees a family nearly torn apart by keeping secrets from each other. First we have Nicole Kidman's confession regarding her strange sexual fantasies towards a man she never met. This ends up inspiring Tom Cruise to go on a strange odyssey during the night, all while keeping it hidden from his wife. After a few failed attempts to have a sexual encounter that culminate in Cruise accidentally attending a disturbing party in which everyone is dressed ominously in robes and masks, he finally breaks down and confesses everything. Once their secrets are out they are able to get their relationship back on track.
Nice list! I didn't do this week's because I couldn't think of a movie I actually LIKED with a family secret. I suppose I could've made a list of movies I hate with family secrets...
ReplyDeleteBut I didn't think of Eyes Wide Sut or Total Recall. Those are decent.
Well, it was certainly hard to find one that had anything I could consider a family secret.
DeleteCool choices. I love Total Recall, but haven't seen Arsenic and Old Lace. I need to rewatch Eyes Wide Shut. Couldn't get into it the first time I watched it and its been years since I tried again. Not sure if I'll have a chance to post one for this week. Hope so.
ReplyDeleteIt's not an easy one to sit through, but it is technically a Christmas film so this would be a great opportunity.
DeleteThere is also the film Secrets and Lies which was great even though I have not seen it in years. I love that you picked Arsenic and Old Lace because of the secrets his kindly "Aunts" have (kindly??) and his psycho brother and Dr played by the great Peter Lorre. Heck, the brother doesn't realize, until everyone else does, that his face looks like Boris Karloff:) There are so many secrets upon secrets it's hard to keep it straight. but it all ends well:)
ReplyDeleteI left the interpretation of family secret open when I set the theme. But for my post I chose secrets that have profound impact on the members of the family and all of the secrets destroyed relationships and for some, lives.
ReplyDeleteWandering through the Shelves
In some ways that's similar to what I went with as well. At the very least these family secrets all have very prominent effects on the main character.
DeleteGood picks, man. I actually have never seen Total Recall if you can believe that. Arsenic and Old Lace is a super interesting pick. Haven't seen it in years but a true classic.
ReplyDeleteWell, I was trying to find something that could be considered a family secret, and they'd managed to keep their insanity hidden up until the beginning of the movie so I think that qualifies.
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