Little Secrets

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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A 2001 independent film, directed by Blair Treu and starring Evan Rachel Wood, Michael Angarano, David Gallagher, and Vivica A. Fox. The film sees 14-year-old Emily Lindstrom (Wood) auditioning for the Youth Symphony, in addition to operating a "secret keeper" business. When a new family arrives in town, 12-year-old Philip Lenox (Angarano) tells Emily about what his brother David (Gallagher) had done. This, along with the birth of the new Lindstrom baby, crashes Emily's tragic past into her present. Things go south from there.

Tropes used in Little Secrets include:
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: When Laurel, Jenny, and Emily mingle at the baby shower, Laurel admires David since "he is bad news".
  • Berserk Button: When Philip talks about David's expulsion from tennis camp for drunk driving, he unintentionally freaks Emily out.
  • Easily Forgiven
    • After Emily suffers a terrible fall at her mother's baby shower, Philip finally admits that he broke the chess piece on accident. His father Don was forgiving about Philip's mistake.
    • When Emily felt sorry about spilling to Philip on what "Wwhap The O Wit Wwa" means, Laurel forgives Emily and she tells her that the only thing that mattered was what it stands for.
  • Foreshadowing: When Eddie talks to Emily on the roof about the miracle baby, he tells her that hanging out on the roof top will freak her mother out. Guess what happens at Caroline's baby shower.
  • Good Parents: Caroline and Eddie are this to Emily, despite being her adoptive parents.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: A posthumous example. The drunk driver that took the lives of Emily's biological parents in the late 1980s ended up taking his own life in another accident shortly after his release from prison.
  • Logo Joke: The TriStar Pictures music is in double high tone.
  • Never Say "Die": Partially averted. When coming to terms with her adoption to her friends and family, Emily Lindstrom said her biological parents were "hit head on" by a drunk driver. When David visits Emily's hospital room, however, she tells him that the drunk driver killed himself when he was released after his first prison sentence.