The Secret: Dare to Dream

By Joanna Langfield

No.

Perhaps there was a time when this very old fashioned romance could have been viewed as, I don’t know, sweet? But now is not the time for a story about a widowed mother, so broke she can’t buy a pizza, learning to think positive until Mr. Right comes along to fix everything.

Based on the self help book, Andy Tennant has wrapped the cheerful message that sold a zillion copies into a traditional love story. The much better than her material Katie Holmes stars as the struggling woman, trying to keep things afloat in her lily white New Orleans suburb. Almost overwhelmed by it all, she literally crashes into Josh Lucas, a man who’s not only not upset, he offers to repair her broken bumper. (No jokes please, or maybe we could use a dose of fun somewhere along the very solemn line here.) Soon, Josh is fixing her roof, her attitude and, well, we’ll stop there. This is, after all, a family program.

I’m all for a good, luscious romance as much as the next guy, but this one, while not being particularly good, only stands out in its tone deaf messaging. Of course, it’s not the movie’s fault it is being released as so many are suffering so much, a time when attaboy tweets encouraging career changes remind of us the infamous “let them eat cake”. But the idea of a capable woman being rescued by Mr. Perfect is one that was outdated way before our current lockdowns. Let the women here reflect the bright, multi-dimensional women who truly do surround us on a daily basis. Katie Holmes deserves this. And so do we.