one of my absolute favorites!

just watch it!

Disturbing yet enthralling

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This is a review of the review 'Jane Dow' wrote on 'Secret Smile'.The film 'Secret Smile' was a 2005 film starring David Tenant as a jilted lover who turns out to be a revenge driven psycho. In much the same way as 'Fatal Attraction' before it, if it intends to work as a fable, the moral of the tale is for sure not to sleep with strangers assuming all will be well. Or at least be aware they may turn out to be obsessed and crazed individuals who could turn your whole life upside down in frenzied revenge missions when you attempt to break off with them.Jane Dow's review of 'Secret Smile' had me smiling more than the movie did. It was spot on. It was also very useful in being a 'how not to' guide as to what to do if you do chose to sleep with a stranger who turns out to be mad in a bad way and/or accidentally pick up a stalker-psycho. The first rule of which is: if you discover your stalker-psycho has had access to your front door keys, definitely do not keep the same lock on your door, and particularly NOT if the stalker has already let themselves into your flat on more than one occasion ;) ... Thank you 'Jane Dow' for your lovely fun review.

When Miranda meets the tall and handsome Brendan through a friend and brings him home she doesn't expect the romance to lead to deception and murder. After a night of carnal bliss the seeming sweet Brendan becomes obsessed with Miranda and integrates himself into her life by seeking out and beginning a relationship with her sister Kerry. Miranda knows that Brendan is being vindictive and wants to protect her family and friends even if they don't believe her. She soon becomes equally obsessed with proving his guilt after people mysteriously die. Could Miranda be sealing her own fate or Brendans when she goes snooping into his life and finds a disturbing past? Kate Ashfield (Shaun of the Dead) gives a fantastic performance along side David Tennant's (Doctor Who) brilliant and convincingly psychotic one.

Miranda meets Brendan, a charming bloke, beds him in an instant, and then is amazed to find out he's a cad! Excuse me dear, in this day and age that's self destructive. He gets royally ticked off when she dumps him and gets his own back by dating her sister and ingratiating himself with her clueless family.There is her brother, mentally ill, and a certain foil for Brendan's evil influence. He mugs Miranda's next love, apparently at Brendan's urging, who then departs the scene when he thinks Miranda is too obsessed with Brendan's manipulations. Miranda discovers Brendan's past is full of "crazy" behavior and dumps it all out at a family gathering, but no-one believes her, the silly saps all go against her "evidence". Why? Because Brendan has a bombshell of his own to drop. Miranda slept with her sister's former boyfriend back in God knows when! How does he know: he read it in her diary.Does anyone, including Miranda, point out that her "evidence" come from a source that can be contacted and verified whereas his "evidence" comes from underhandedness. No! Mom and Dad go with Brendan's obvious "cattiness", because that drives on the drama! Then her brother kills himself, and we are left to believe Brendan had something to do with it, but he's so cloyingly self effacing at the funeral that everyone - except Miranda - falls for it.When Brendan dumps the sister and marries Miranda's best friend, are the parents chagrined by their disloyalty? There is no sign of it. The sister even blames Miranda for it! What did Miranda do to deserve such a clueless and uncharitable lot? Then Brendan's new bride shows up dead in her bath tub. The police, evidently without any access to CSI technology, declare it as an accident! Another plot device to drive on the drama: make the cops look like idiots! It goes on and on, with poor old stupid Miranda being out foxed at every turn by this evil SOB! She's so stupid that when he manages to convince a Judge (who also does not seem to have access to evidentiary procedures) that she is a menace, and has a restraining order placed against her, she goes running off to his home when his latest bride calls her! Hey, it's effective to most of the female audience! By now they're so wrapped up with him getting his come uppance, that they don't care if the usual detective work goes missing! In the end she gets her revenge and poor old Brendan is hauled off to Jail for something he is innocent of, namely her murder. She lets her family believe she's been murdered, until Brendan is safely ensconced in Jail and then shows up to meet them at the airport in Australia! The dim witted couple are so pleased to see her, and evidently so pleased that Brendan is in Jail on trumped up charges, that they all live happily ever after! The plot is exasperating yet enthrallingly bad, It's enthralling if you accept that everyone has to ignore the obvious, and that is: The authorities are all stupid and incompetent! The main protagonist has a past, as our heroine uncovers. Do the police check it out: NO! Does the Judge check it out? NO! Do her parents check it out: NO! Does her sister: NO! It's all a typical BBC production, predicated on the audience being interested enough in the unfolding drama, that they accept that this guy is going to continue to fool everybody, so that our heroine has to take justice into her own hands. Roll over Agatha!

Miranda Cotton meets a guy; takes him home, bit of hanky-panky, they start to see each other. Just like any other relationship. But when she catches him reading her diary, she starts to get a bit worried, and asks him to leave.To her shock and terror, in a few months he has proposed to her sister.This piece really gripped me from start to finish. I curled up with a blanket and watched it - as a Doctor Who fan for many years, it's important to me that my Doctor is a good actor, and although I'd seen Tennant's acting before and loved it, I wanted to have a final test. I was certainly impressed. Secret Smile had a solid enough storyline that really terrified me in places, but it really was all down to the fabulous casting. Kate Ashfield (Miranda) had you on her side all the way through, conveying well what the emotions were - and Susannah Wise (Miranda's best friend, Laura) and her 'husband', James Daffern, despite having minor roles, impressed me beyond many of the other supporting cast.There was not a truly weak performance in the cast. If I had to pick a low point it would probably be Claire Goose, but I think that was just down to a bad character as opposed to the acting; the book's Kerry is considerably different, somehow, and I didn't find myself connecting with this one so powerfully.David Tennant was, however, the true highlight - he managed to convey Brendan's truly sadistic side with just a look - and yet still managed to have me feeling sorry for him when Miranda turned him away. 'That line' as it has become known - I won't write it, but suffice to say it's when he was thinking about her lips - was delivered with such a venom, that it physically made me shudder. A wonderful performance with immense presence. Also, kudos to Robert Lowe for a moving piece as Troy Cotton, even if his character was unbelievable.Altogether, 10/10 for acting, 7/10 for plot. Definitely worth a watch - I videoed it, and really enjoyed it.