SECRET SMILE is a thriller that was sold to the TV public of having David Tennant as bad guy Brendan Block and to be totally honest I probably wouldn't have watched this if Tennant hadn't been cast as the tenth actor to play the title character in DOCTOR WHO so I was very interested in seeing how he'd play a villain In this type of thriller , much of the performance of the actor playing the villain makes or breaks the production , the whole story rests on one actor so do I think Tennant pulled it off ? Yes just about but not overwhelmingly . Tennant is good looking , though in a slightly effete way but I can see why he has a growing army of female fans falling over themselves to watch whatever he's in . Tennant plays Block just a little too hard edged and nasty a bit too early on . Wouldn't he have been more convincing if he smiled more and used some undoubted charm to woo characters into being on his side ? Sometimes Tennant plays Block a bit too obvious which led this viewer to wonder why characters were unable to see through his manipulation . Mind you Tennant gives a very good performance in comparison to Kate Ashfield who I thought was fairly wooden
!!!!! SPOILERS !!!!!
But the failings of SECRET SMILE is down to the story . I've never read Sean French's novel so I don't know how it compares to Kate Brooke's adaptation but I'm afraid it's somewhat silly . The first half of the story ( Episode one ) plays out as a lover scorned takes his revenge on the woman who jilted him and manipulates Miranda Cotton's brother into killing himself . Apparently the brother was a manic depressive and manic depressives when stressed stick their fingers in their ears and make wailing noises . I doubt if French or Brooke's are a psychiatrist so perhaps they should have read up on the condition before they committed the character to paper
Things get worse in the second half of the story ( Episode two ) but remains highly watchable because of the utterly bizarre plot twists . After courting Miranda's sister Kerry Block then dumps her on their wedding day and marries Miranda's friend Laura instead who then turns up dead in a bath tub . After several more twists and turns that defy comprehension Block rapes Miranda and then murders her and dumps the body and is then given a life sentence for murder and there's a twist at the end which I could see coming a mile away . The end
The twist is what SECRET SMILE will be remembered for and I fail to see how it could possibly work in real life . It all rests on Block turning up at Miranda's flat and accepting a glass of wine and the more you think about it the more things fall apart . What you mean you can emigrate to Australia without any references or without any checks being made . Don't the authorities do background checks and wouldn't they realise that the person you're claiming to be got drowned in a bath ? But I guess since he's going to be starring in DOCTOR WHO next year David Tennant had better get used to appearing in drama's with contrived endings . Bad Wolf anyone ?
!!!!! SPOILERS !!!!!
But the failings of SECRET SMILE is down to the story . I've never read Sean French's novel so I don't know how it compares to Kate Brooke's adaptation but I'm afraid it's somewhat silly . The first half of the story ( Episode one ) plays out as a lover scorned takes his revenge on the woman who jilted him and manipulates Miranda Cotton's brother into killing himself . Apparently the brother was a manic depressive and manic depressives when stressed stick their fingers in their ears and make wailing noises . I doubt if French or Brooke's are a psychiatrist so perhaps they should have read up on the condition before they committed the character to paper
Things get worse in the second half of the story ( Episode two ) but remains highly watchable because of the utterly bizarre plot twists . After courting Miranda's sister Kerry Block then dumps her on their wedding day and marries Miranda's friend Laura instead who then turns up dead in a bath tub . After several more twists and turns that defy comprehension Block rapes Miranda and then murders her and dumps the body and is then given a life sentence for murder and there's a twist at the end which I could see coming a mile away . The end
The twist is what SECRET SMILE will be remembered for and I fail to see how it could possibly work in real life . It all rests on Block turning up at Miranda's flat and accepting a glass of wine and the more you think about it the more things fall apart . What you mean you can emigrate to Australia without any references or without any checks being made . Don't the authorities do background checks and wouldn't they realise that the person you're claiming to be got drowned in a bath ? But I guess since he's going to be starring in DOCTOR WHO next year David Tennant had better get used to appearing in drama's with contrived endings . Bad Wolf anyone ?