The Secret: Dare to Dream review by Bobby Blakey
I want to admit up front I am not a big fan of Katie Holmes, but always willing to give any actor a chance in film. Her latest film The Secret: Dare to Dream based on the book by Rhonda Byrne has her teaming up with a great cast including Josh Lucas, Jerry O’Connell and Celia Weston, but does it offer up anything new to help it stand out in this genre or will it get swept away in the storm?
The Secret: Dare to Dream follows Miranda, a young widow trying to make ends meet while raising her three children and dating her boyfriend. A devastating storm brings an enormous challenge and a mysterious man, Bray, into Miranda’s life. Bray reignites the family’s spirit but, unbeknownst to Miranda, also holds an important secret — one that will change everything.
I had never saw the trailer for this film so other than the cast so didn’t know much going in. This is one of those multilayered misleading romantic dramas that hopes to pull at the heart strings and rope in the sappy viewers. This isn’t necessary a bad thing as the film works fine, but sadly isn’t much of anything we haven’t seen before. Again that doesn’t make it a bad film or anything just not overly original. That being sad it does work.
The film spends a lot of time trying to set things up and then back and forth trying to build a longer narrative that really isn’t overly necessary. They could have trimmed this film down to an hour and a half and had the same outcome. I applaud them trying to let the story and film build and not rush things it’s just that kind of story that isn’t necessary. There are some twists and turns here, but all pretty predictable. Once you get passed that element it is actually a decent film.
This is one of those kinds of films that has that specific niche audience that will get sucked right in and that is why these films work. I will say I dug that this film didn’t dive right into the romantic nature given the actual story itself. I had figured out what was likely happening pretty early on and found myself annoyed that they just didn’t get to the point, but that was nothing against the film itself.
All the cast are good, although the older daughter character had me hating her right out the gate which I am sure is by design but then she has a personality change kind of out of nowhere. In the end I am not the audience this film was intended was intended for and I am sure those that are will no doubt love it.
In addition to the film this release also features a behind the scenes featurette on bringing this book to the big screen. Grab your copy of The Secret: Dare to Dream available now on digital, Blu-ray and DVD from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.