"Secret Lives" unfolds with many of the techniques of film noir: mood lighting; insurance agent investigating a scam; murder; deceit; and plot twists. Unfortunately, the pacing of the film was labored and there simply was not enough action to support a crime drama.
Jill Thompson is a painter and art history teacher in Oregon. Ten years ago, her profligate husband Leonard died in a fire, leaving her financially strapped. Now, an insurance investigator, Mike McCoy, shows up at her doorstep with evidence that the husband had faked his death, moved to Washington state, and recently died of a heart attack while running in the cold with no shirt. Jill does not buy the story and begins to investigate herself the circumstances of her former husband's secret life and suspicious death.
St. Nicholas of Myra (good ol' Saint Nick) figures in the details that Jill discovers as clues leading to the truth about her husband. The quick-thinking Jill uses St. Nicholas as the password to enter Leonard's multi-million-dollar bank account. This is one of the more interesting details in a by-the-numbers action film.
As the narrative gets bogged down in alternative scenes in Oregon and Washington, there is very little action other than an incident where Jill is nearly run off the road. There are far too many stretches filled with conversations that do not advance the film's action. Other characters include Jill's friend and attorney, Shelby; an incompetent police officer in Washington; and a bank teller who knows more about Leonard than she is letting on.
Jill was an engaging heroine on the trail of her husband's killer. But the film needed greater sparks in the developing relationship between Jill and the insurance man Mike. A touch of romance developed when they kissed. But true to the form of this sluggish film, the kiss was followed by a scene at the motel where they are staying: Jill and Mike proceed to enter separate rooms!!!
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