In Secret

Therese Raquin was written in 1867, but it plays like noir, and I can think of two noir films, both based on books by James M. Cain, that would seem to have been inspired by it. In Secret, released in 2014, is an adaptation of the Zola novel directed by Charlie Stratton.

The story concerns Therese, (Elizabeth Olsen) a girl fathered by a sea captain. Her mother has died, so he drops her off with his sister, a kind but extremely neurotic woman played by Jessica Lange. She has a sickly son (Tom Felton), and because of Olsen's mother's questionable status, Lange marries her off to him.

Olsen tries to make a go of it, but falls hard for Felton's friend, the dark and smoldering Oscar Isaac. They have a passionate affair, but when Felton wants to leave Paris and go back to the sticks, the two plot to kill him. In shades of American Tragedy (and it's film version, A Place in the Sun), Felton is murdered on a boating excursion, knocked into the water and drowned.

Lange is so devastated that she has a stroke, and cannot speak. She overhears Olsen and Isaac talking about the crime, as now that they are married they start to detest each other. Lange knows the truth, but cannot communicate, but this is unnecessary as Olsen and Isaac eventually plan to kill each other.

Though this film has period costumes and is set in France, it is very reminiscent of the shadows of noir. The two Cain books I refer to are Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice, both of which involve a sexually repressed woman who manipulate a guy to murder her husband for her. Of course, these couples don't live happily ever after, and neither do they in In Secret.

This is kind of an odd film. For one thing, I wonder who decided to change the title. I suppose Therese Raquin is too French sounding or something, but In Secret is so vague it could be the title of any movie. The film is pretty straightforward but rarely rises above the merely competent, except for Lange, who gives a galvanizing performance. Some of her best work is when she can't speak, such as when she first learns of her son's murder while in a bathtub, the water almost trickling into her mouth. For a while I thought she was going to drown as she heard the news.

The play version of Therese Raquin opens on Broadway this fall with Keira Knightley making her Broadway debut. I'd like to see it, but living in Las Vegas precludes that.