Who was calling Anna Marshall? Does it really matter? Did the person on the other end of the phone really know who she was? Director Flavio Alves offers up a different look at two ships passing through the night with a telephone meeting of chance that begins with mysterious silent phone calls that soon transforms in to something new and unique. Alves sets down on Anna Marshall, an elderly kind woman whose husband has just passed away. Living alone, she's greeted by kind neighbors who offer up friendship to her. One day she is greeted with a phone call by someone who refuses to answer when she picks up the phone. What starts out as disturbing, progresses in to confounding and then amusing. Marshall being a woman longing for companionship and incapable of being remotely cynical makes the best out of her daily mysterious friend engaging in one sided conversations, discussing the events of her day, and reading books to the mystery caller.

This is due to the fact that star Viola Harris gives a truly rousing performance turning the character in to such a charming and sympathetic individual, one we know is a charmer but is deep down very lonely and miserable. The ultimate answer to who the secret caller is is left ambiguous and Alves allows the audience to decide for themselves what has occurred before us. Did a neighbor feel it in their power to provide the kind Mrs. Marshall with some companionship as a gesture of love? Did Mrs. Marshall's husband keep her company from beyond the grave? Is she the victim of elaborate crank phone calls that she made the best out of? Did a good Samaritan offer up a good deed at random? By the final scene it matters little since she's been given a reason to continue her life, and Alves creates a life assuring short drama worth watching.

Mysterious, clever, and sweet, "The Secret Friend" is a slice of life I recommend for anyone interested in exploring the randomness of life, and how sometimes strangers can give us a reason to keep moving forward in the face of sadness and grief.