Sharing the Secret

Alison Lohman (Where The Truth Lies, Big Fish, White Oleander), one of the most gifted young acting talents to have emerged in recent years, gives a riveting performance as a teenage girl whose seemingly perfect life obscures a nightmare reality in Sharing The Secret. Graced with an intelligent and perceptive script and subtle, committed performances from its cast, this superb drama, which won a Peabody Award, deals with an emotional issue that afflicts many teenagers but which is one of the most difficult to bring out into the open.Beth Moss (Lohman) has a life that seems right in every detail. She has good looks, sharp intelligence, a comfortable home life and a loving relationship with her divorced parents - mother Nina (Mare Winningham, St Elmo's Fire, E.R.) and father John (Tim Matheson, The West Wing). But the one vital factor missing from Beth's life is control over her own wants and needs. She presents a veneer of happiness to please her parents, her school work is so good that her teachers accuse her of cheating, she despises her shallow friends and she will never be the great dancer she craves to be. To cope with this emotional wasteland, Beth turns her fear, rage and misery in on herself and becomes bulimic, binge-eating and purging herself. For years she keeps her condition a secret - until in one sensational revelation the secret comes to light with powerful emotional consequences for all concerned. But only by bringing her 'secret' out into the open and sharing it with those who can help her can Beth have any chance of both health and happiness.