Despite a solid
cast and a sophisticated screenplay based on the Academy Award-winning Argentinean
film, El secreto de sus ojos, Secret in Their Eyes never feels
completely necessary. Even dismissing the common decision to remake a foreign
film into an English-language copycat, Secret
in Their Eyes feels too familiar to a string of better suspense films. With
similar moral discussions about certainty of guilt and the consequences of
acting on these assumptions, there are many parallels between this film and Prisoners, but not enough new ground is
covered to warrant another addition into the sub-genre, much less a
remake.
The narrative
jumps back and forth between two time periods in order to draw out the suspense
from each, but this non-chronological approach can be somewhat confusing in
scenes without Julia Roberts, as she is the only actress given a distinctly
different look in each period. Roberts is a crime scene investigator named
Jess, partnered with Ray (Chiwetel Ejiofor) when her teenage daughter is
discovered murdered. Despite great efforts takes by Ray and his supervisor,
Claire (Nicole Kidman), the culprit suspected of the crime is able to use
connections to escape punishment. After this missed opportunity, the prime
suspect vanishes without a trace, devastating those involved.
13 years later
Ray has replaced his career in law enforcement with a low pressure security
job, giving him the freedom to spend all of his free time trying to right this
injustice from the past. When Ray believes that he has tracked down the man
responsible for the death of Jess’s daughter, he returns to Claire with hopes
that she will help him finally bring the murderer to justice. We watch this new
investigation as it is intercut with sequences from the original investigation
13 years prior, though this seems more for the purpose of dispersing the film’s
most exciting sequences than to inspire parallels for comparison between the
two.
There is nothing
glaringly wrong with Secret in Their Eyes,
though it still ends up feeling unneeded and a bit contrived with its final
revelations. All of the actors involved give committed and believable
performances, but the material never quite matches their level of dedication.
It is a story which always appears to have more to say about larger issues than
it actually does, eventually resolving to live in the shadow of better films,
including the one it is based on.
The Blu-ray
release includes a DVD and a Digital HD copy of the film, along with a few
extras on the disc. The bonus features include two featurettes, including one
with Roberts discussing the difficulty of the grief-filled role of Jess and
another about the material’s adaptation. Even more insightful is the
feature-film commentary track with filmmaker Billy Ray and his producer, Mark
Johnson.
Entertainment Value:
6/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 7/10
Historical
Significance: 5.5/10
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