The Secret Rapture is a 1993 British drama film directed by Howard Davies and starring Juliet Stevenson, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Penelope Wilton and Neil Pearson.

Estranged sisters Isobel and Marion are forced to reunite when their father dies and they must decide how to handle Katherine, their young, alcoholic, mentally unstable stepmother who has been left nothing but the rural home in which they were raised.

Before long, the strain of running the expanded business impacts Isobel's relationship with Patrick, who is becoming increasingly dependent upon her, while at the same time Katherine's tenuous hold on sanity begins to unravel.

As dislikable as Marion may be, Ms. Wilton's portrayal allows us enough glimpses through her mask of hard self-sufficiency to suggest the fearful, unloved child beneath.

"[2] Leonard Klady of Variety called the film "fitfully successful" and observed, "Howard Davies provides an appropriately somber tone for this tale of blood rivalries and emotional manipulation.

Existing in a holding room between upscale kitchen-sink reality and allegory, The Secret Rapture challenges the director and performers to find their ground.

"Variety review Adam Mars-Jones of The Independent noted, "In the theatre, the changes that affect two very different sisters when their father dies and his much younger lover is unleashed into their lives may have carried conviction.

On screen, the rollercoaster rate of power reversal and the sheer abruptness of the characters' U-turn give the melodrama a foreshortened quality that is unintentionally comic .