Seeking out the
5000 greatest films
in a century of cinema
Secret in Their Eyes
Produced by Mark Johnson and Matt Jackson
Screenplay by Billy Ray Based on the film El secreto de sus ojos written by Juan José Campanella and Eduardo Sacheri Based on the novel La pregunta de sus ojos by Eduardo Sacheri
Editing: Jim Page
Music: Emilio Kauderer
Release Date: 20 November 2015
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1
Color: Color
It's been a long time since I've seen a star-driven mystery thriller that misfires as spectacularly as Billy Ray's remake of the Argentinian Oscar winning crime drama El secreto de sus ojos. Ray, the acclaimed writer of Flightplan, The Hunger Games, and Captain Phillips, has directed two previous features (which he also wrote): Shattered Glass and Breach. It is clear from the three pictures he’s directed that Ray likes stories of high-stakes office politics, and he’s usually pretty good at crafting meaty two-hander scenes into which actors can sink their teeth. But from the very beginning of this movie, which, granted, is supposed to feel awkward, everything from the pace to the character dynamics to the exposition feels hesitant and unwieldy.
For his Secret in Their Eyes, Ray transfers the original picture’s setting of Argentina's “dirty war” of the late ‘70s to America's current “war on terror”. The narrative bounces back and forth from 2001, immediately after the September 11th attacks, to 2014 (a shorter time span than the twenty-five year gap in El secreto de sus ojos). As in the original film, the story centers on a rape and murder case from the past that continues to haunt the people who investigated it. The shift in setting doesn’t work well because the “bad guys” in this version—reactionary politicians and weaselly little federal pencil pushers—come off as straw men whose actions and motivations are ludicrously difficult to swallow. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Julia Roberts play former FBI buddies who have the most difficult time shaking off the ghosts of the old unsolved case. Nicole Kidman plays the District Attorney for whom Ray always carried a torch (a torch so heavy it practically incapacitates him). Dean Norris and Michael Kelly play fellow agents on the terrorism task force, one is loveable; one is a scumbag (you can guess which). Alfred Molina play’s their boss—the movie’s worst written character.
The all-star cast certainly gives the picture its all, especially Julia Roberts, but almost nothing, including her go-for-broke performance, works in the slightest. The twist-laden story is just too absurd and the behaviors depicted too incomprehensible.
-----RETURN TO HOME PAGE-----