‘Secret’ remains puzzling

The psychological mystery “Every Secret Thing,” crackerjack documentarian Amy Berg’s fiction feature debut, boasts Frances McDormand as a producer, a screenplay by awkward-moments master Nicole Holofcener and a killer cast that includes Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, Dakota Fanning and Common.

But rather than stir up a tantalizing puzzle surrounding the truth behind two toddler kidnappings seven years apart and a pair of convicted child killers (Fanning and Danielle Macdonald) newly released from juvenile lockup, this movie raises the question: How could it have gone so wrong?

Crushingly listless and at times as off-putting as a needle scratching vinyl, this corkscrew tale of questionable parenting, youthful misjudgments, grudges and disappointments doesn’t even have the disciplined domestic-evil allure of a Lifetime movie.

Berg, whose docs (“Deliver Us From Evil”) effortlessly chill, seems trapped between procedural naturalism (Banks is woefully stiff as an investigating detective), social realism in its depiction of a frayed community and the cloak-and-reveal demands of a potboiler (where Lane’s manipulative-mom portrayal belongs). Adapted from Laura Lippman’s novel, the film also has an overreliance on shadowy cinematography that feels like a recipe for Instant Mood rather than something drawn organically from the material.

In the end, “Every Secret Thing” wants the enigma of bad behavior to burn like an eternal f lame, but overall the movie just feels like one very cold case.

— Robert Abele “Every Secret Thing.” MPAA rating: R for language, disturbing images. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes. Playing: Laemmle’s Music Hall 3, Beverly Hills; Laemmle’s Town Center 5, Encino; Laemmle’s NoHo 7, North Hollywood.