Reel Rundown: ‘Secrets We Keep’ investigates how much people are willing to overlook in order to protect their privilege
Whenever any novel, movie or miniseries deals with some sort of mystery involving a missing person, the name Harlen Coben tends to come up.
It you don’t recognize that name, it’s enough to know that Coben is a best-selling author whose virtual library of crime novels has been adapted into a number of productions in various languages. They range from the acclaimed 2006 French-made film “Tell No One” to the eight-part 2018 Netflix miniseries “Safe.”
No matter whether you know Coben, but especially if you do, you’re likely to appreciate the six-part Danish-language miniseries “Secrets We Keep,” which is streaming on Netflix.
Working in the same genre as Coben, the Danish actress/screenwriter Ingeborg Topsøe is the creative mind behind the miniseries. Yet while Coben’s works can be described as mere thrillers, Topsøe has imbued the mystery she has invented with clear socio-political commentary.
As many crime-themed storylines tend to begin, we’re presented with a seemingly comfortable family situation. Cecilie (Marie Bach Hansen) is the wife of lawyer Mike (Simon Sears) and the mother of both a teenage boy, Viggo (Lukas Zuperka), and a toddler girl. As a sign of the well-to-do life she leads, Cecilie enjoys the services of a Filipina au pair, Angel (Excel Busano), who is particularly close to Viggo.
So it surprises Cecilie when one day she spies Ruby (Donna Levkovski), the au pair of Viggo’s buddy Oscar (Frode Bilde Rønsholt), as she furtively tosses something into her neighbor’s trash receptacle.
Cecilie’s discomfort increases when Ruby, visiting later with Cecilie’s neighbor and best friend Katarina (Danica Curcic) – a neighbor who happens to be Ruby’s boss and Oscar’s mother – anxiously approaches her for help, saying she can no longer live with Oscar’s family. But Cecilie, not wanting to get involved, declines Ruby’s request.
And that’s when the mystery of “Secrets We Keep” begins to unfold. Because the following morning Katarina comes calling to report Ruby missing. And almost immediately not only does suspicion arise that something dire has occurred to the unfortunate au pair, but several of the characters we get introduced to get fingered as suspects.
Chief among them is Rasmus (Lars Ranthe), Katarina’s magnate husband and chief client of Cecilie’s husband. It is he, anyway, who becomes one of the targets of the police detective Aicha (Sara Fanta Traore) assigned to investigate Ruby’s case.
Topsøe both created and wrote the miniseries, each episode of which was directed by Per Fly. In doing so, she deserves credit for focusing not just on the vagaries of the plot’s central mystery but also on the culture clash that lurks underneath it. “Secrets We Keep” revolves both around its wealthy characters and on a community of immigrant au pairs as well, revealing the cracks in the relationship between the working women and their sometimes imperious employers.
Other plots paths underscore Topsøe’s intentions as well. Viggo and Oscar are part of a group of teen boys who share sexy photos of the women, and girls, that they have filmed in secret. Rasmus pressures Mike to keep Cecilie from talking to the police about what she saw Ruby discarding, and Cecilie herself becomes uneasy with how close Angel is to Viggo – a troubled boy that no one appears willing to listen to.
The Danish title for “Secrets We Keep” is “Reservatet,” which is both the name of an upscale Copenhagen neighborhood and a symbol of just how much some people – Cecilie among them – are willing to overlook evil just to protect their sense of privilege.
That evil is something that Cecilie only gradually, and reluctantly, is forced to confront. And her realization involves contending with the kinds of distressing emotions that even Harlen Coben might not be inclined to pursue.