SOURCE: "Silly Secrets," in Commonweal, Vol. CXIX, No. 6, March 27, 1992, pp. 24-25.

In the following review, Alleva comments on Potter's directorial debut with his film Secret Friends.

Dennis Potter's Secret Friends is a jigsaw puzzle that doesn't give you much to look at once you've assembled it. Of course, the fun of jigsaw puzzles is in the assembly, not the final result. But Secret Friends fails as mind teaser, too, because too many of its narrative twists can be easily anticipated. This movie testifies more strongly to Potter's work ethic than to his art. For his first directorial effort, he's written a script that's very busy yet quite cold, extremely intricate, and utterly hollow.

The premise is interesting. A man on a train (Alan Bates) is quite obviously having an emotional breakdown. He weeps hysterically as he stares down at his luncheon fish but can't communicate to conductor and...