By Susan Granger
Netflix’s intriguing Danish psychological thriller The Secret Woman introduces a lady with amnesia who learns that she’s not only a missing heiress but also married and the mother of a young son.
The story begins in Denmark as an adult female is climbing over the railing of a huge bridge with someone in pursuit; terrified, she jumps off, just as a cargo ship passes below.
Cut to: Louise Andersen (Natalie Wolfsberg Madueno) who runs a small café on the idyllic Norwegian island of Hidra with her novelist fiancé Joachim (Pål Sverre Hagen). Their peaceful life is shattered when a stranger appears, insisting that her real name is Helene, not Louise.
Obviously shaken, she admits she’s still suffering from amnesia. So she goes to the attic, opens one of several packing boxes and finds a purse containing Louise’s ID card and a shattered compact mirror that triggers jumbled memories.
One clue leads to another, culminating in a DNA test that proves she’s really Helene Soderberg, not Louise Andersen. That discovery propels her to fly to Denmark to confront her husband, Edmund (Claes Bang), and find her son, Alexander (David Elting).
Edmund and Alexander live on the palatial estate that belonged to Helene’s late father, Aksel (Lars Simonsen), a shipping magnate; Edmund’s doting mother Caroline (Stina Ekblad) has been caring for Alexander since they assumed Helene had committed suicide.
Based on a best-selling 2017 novel by Anna Ekberg (the pen name used by Anders Rennow Klarlund & Jacob Weinreich), adapted by Anders Frithiof August & director Barbara Topsoe-Rothenborg, the mystery takes a deep dive when Helene discovers the ‘real’ identity of Louise Andersen, leading to a criminal conspiracy that’s been carefully concealed within her father’s shipping company for many years.
While there’s lots of layers of intrigue, the question remains: Did Helene really have amnesia? The last scene in which she looks directly at the camera with a meaningful smirk leaves one wondering.
In Danish & English with English subtitles, on the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, The Secret Woman is a suspenseful 7, streaming on Netflix.
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Susan Granger
Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in Journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has appeared on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie critic for many years. Read all her reviews at susangranger.com.
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