Review: SECRET IN THEIR EYES

The Argentinean thriller, THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES, is a story of unresolved love set against the mystery of an unresolved murder. The surprise winner of this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language film is a handsome if conventional film that makes its leisurely way through several genres; equal parts murder mystery, adult romance, buddy cop movie, and political discourse. Writer/Director Juan José Campanella lets his story slowly unfold in satisfying detail resulting in a film that is engrossing, intense, and in one extended shot, exhilarating. THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES is less about a murder case and more about the living left behind, and is a highly recommended drama.

Based on a novel by Eduardo Sacheri, the plot of THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES hinges on a young woman’s murder and a middle-aged man’s determination to find justice for her 25 years later. Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darín), a retired criminal courts agent and aspiring novelist is obsessed with the 1974 rape and murder of a young Buenos Aires woman, a case he, along with his alcoholic partner, helped initially solve but still haunts him after the killer was let loose for political reasons soon after his arrest. As the puzzle of the past unfolds in flashbacks, the present reconnects him with his own lost love, Irene (Soledad Villamil), who was his young boss on the case and is now a respected judge married with a family while Benjamin is just older and alone. Benjamin became a target of his political enemies and while the coups and corruption that defined Argentina’s political upheavals of the 1970s helps steer the plot, it’s the small story of Benjamin, Irene, and a romance that never was that’s at the film’s foreground. Irene is, on the surface, out of Benjamin’s league but writer Campanella creates a lot of smart dialogue between them that is packed with all the flirting and tension of a couple skirting around the edges of a relationship.

Campanella has worked in America on TV, directing shows such as ‘Law & Order’ and it shows. With the exception of one masterful single-take shot at the film’s center, THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES isn’t particularly stylish or cinematic, and with its reliance on close-ups and dialog, often plays like a long episode of one of these cold-case procedurals, albeit a very good one. The cast is anchored by the fine central performance of Ricardo Darin, who in some ways plays a dual role: Benjamin as a young man in his prime frustrated with both the criminal case he’s working on and his inability to capture personal happiness, and as an older man looking back and analyzing the different paths he might have taken. What movie buffs will be talking about in regard to THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES is ‘The Shot’; a stunning single-take sequence halfway through that begins as a birds-eye helicopter shot entering a packed El Monumental soccer stadium. The camera then swoops down into the bleachers and becomes a hand-held chase sequence that winds through and beneath the stands, in and out of bathrooms, then concludes down on the field. It’s all done in a long, unbroken single take that is breathtaking in its execution. This showy single-shot business seems to pop up in movies every year or so (GOODFELLAS, CITY OF MEN, BOOGIE NIGHTS, ATONEMENT, OLDBOY all have famous ones) and has lost some of it’s ability to impress but the one in THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES really is amazing. It pushes some boundaries and I’m looking forward to scrutinizing the DVD so I can see if they actually pulled off what they appeared to. In many ways, this bit of high-wire seems out of place in a film otherwise directed with non-showy economy and precision, but I’m glad it was in there. At 130 minutes, the film could have wrapped up tighter and the final lurid plot twist seems more at home in a horror film, but THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES is fine drama and a worthy, Oscar-winning film.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars