Search - Secrets of the Heart on DVD

Mysteries . . .

Ronald Scheer | Los Angeles | 10/31/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This Spanish film, set in early 1960s, tells a familiar story, about a nine-year-old boy's slow discovery of the mysteries of adulthood. It successfully recreates the puzzled feelings of fascination and revulsion that characterize preadolescent curiosity about what adults know and try to keep from children. The slow pace of the film nicely reflects that state of suspended animation - of waiting impatiently to learn what all the secrecy is about.

The pleasure of this particular story is watching the truth begin to dawn in the awareness of a particular boy, Javi, whose wide-eyed and open mouthed face often fill the screen in closeup, as like a sleuth he begins to put together the clues he finds around him in the behavior of the adults who rule his life - two unmarried aunts, his mother, an uncle, a neighbor, his sullen grandfather, and the mother of his close friend. During the few short months in which the story takes place, there is a suicide, a pregnancy, a wedding, revelations about the death of Javi's father, and intimations of sorrows and ecstasies far beyond his understanding. It is a satisfying journey to take with him."