Friday, May 7, 2010
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Friday, May 7, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
The Secret In Their Eyes
In Argentina, Secrets And
Lies, With Love And Murder
Soledad Villamil as Irene Menendez Hastings and Ricardo Darin as Esposito in "The Secret In Their Eyes".
Sony Pictures
Classics
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday, May 7, 2010
Before too long, a murder will take place. It will be brutal. Almost
as brutal will be the decades-long search for the killer and a resolution.
These are the storytelling dynamics of Juan Jose Campanella's involving noir
film "The Secret In Their Eyes" (aka El Secreto De Sus Ojos), which won the Best
Foreign Language Film Oscar in March.
Mr. Campanella's drama is set in Argentina, spanning some 25-plus years between
a murder and the revelations that follow. The film is based on the book by
Eduardo Sacheri and Mr. Campanella and Mr. Sacheri wrote the screenplay.
Irene Menendez Hastings (Soledad Villamil) is the lead prosecutor on a case that
has caused major headaches for all involved. The victim's husband (Pablo
Rago) ritualistically waits for the killer. The prosecutor's subordinate
percolates with a passion for a colleague. A boozy crime investigator (Guillermo
Francella) is clouded by his greatest obsession.
Passion rules the day in "The Secret In Their Eyes". It's a variable
tainting each of the characters involved in Mr. Campanella's grim drama.
Flickers of light exist for the four principals of this absorbing story, but no
one emerges immaculate. The film has a 1970s feel, dictated by rich color,
sweeping camerawork and a mood perfectly befitting its grim atmosphere.
Mr. Campanella probes the psyche of passion and the role it has in the human
heart. He all but argues for its inclusion as one of the deadly sins, and
there's both torment and danger that explodes around and within the characters.
For some there are discrete zones of focus, interrupted by rule-making bodies or
insignificant players. These moments are like gentle alarm bells reminding
us and the characters that while passion is unruly and all-consuming, society's
rules sit close by, trying to tame passion so as to avert chaos and maintain
order.
David Fincher's drama "Zodiac" (2007), a better film
than this very good one, chronicles similar obsessions. Specifically lives
ruled and ruined entirely by obsession or passion -- whether via a detective's
decades-long dedication to solving near-insolvable serial crimes -- or through
an elusive murderer whose compulsion to kill knows no bounds. "The Secret
In Their Eyes" has more soul however, and unlike Mr. Fincher's three-hour true
story epic, provides a payoff that rewards the audience for its endeavor.
The January film "Storm", starring Kerry Fox, took a colder, more detailed look
at the politics of the legal system, but "Secret" hardly shies from the systemic
bureaucracy that make it and the legal process it depicts a tangled, complicated
web.
These film comparisons aren't made idly. "Zodiac", "Storm" and "Secret"
should be watched as a triple bill. Each provides a realistic look at how
politics, power, passion and various levels of romance both destroy yet augment
the drama in investigative thrillers.
That said, "The Secret In Their Eyes" is a brooding, layered film, perhaps a
little longer than necessary, but no less fascinating for its scope and subject
matter. "A Prophet" and
"The White Ribbon" were better nominees for
the Oscar that "Secret" won, but Mr. Campanella's film is more conventional.
Regardless, one thing the three films in this paragraph have in common are
Sony Pictures Classics, whom
under the chairmanship of Michael Barker and Tom Bernard have released
film after film of unmistakable quality for adults, and for many years, often
without strong audience backing.
The two chairmen have a strong eye for the kinds of art-house (or non-art-house)
stories that will resonate with older moviegoers and connect with cinema lovers
in general. Their track record is remarkable, and Mr. Campanella's film
contains many moments that are almost as impressive.
With: Ricardo Darín, Carla Quevedo, Javier Godino, Bárbara Palladino, Rudy
Romano, José Luis Gioia.
"The Secret In Their Eyes" is rated R by the Motion Picture
Association Of America, for a rape scene, violent images, some graphic nudity
and language. The film is in the Spanish language with English subtitles.
The film's duration is two hours and seven minutes.
COPYRIGHT 2010. POPCORNREEL.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Read more movie reviews and stories from Omar
here.
Read Omar's "Far-Flung Correspondent" reports for America's pre-eminent Film
Critic Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times -
here
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