Review of Secret in Their Eyes (2015) by Kayla M — 27 Nov 2015

NO MORE DRAMA - My Review of SECRET IN THEIR EYES (3 Stars).

It's tough to get a drama made by the Hollywood studios these days. They all want their tentpole comic book movies, sequels, and high concept comedies, leaving one or two slots per year for their prestige, Oscar grabs. And let's face it, David Fincher and Ben Affleck aren't giving up their turns anytime soon. So in these dire times for film lovers who abhor the cookie cutter approach to storytelling, it's commendable that filmmaker Billy Ray (SHATTERED GLASS, BREACH, and the writer of CAPTAIN PHILLIPS) managed to get his film produced at all. Yes, he had to stack the deck by remaking an Academy Award winning film (Argentina's THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES from 2010), employing two Oscar-winning megastars, Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman as well as Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, and set it within the pulpy murder mystery thriller genre, but at least it's not BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE IN 3D!

Unfortunately, SECRET bombed in its opening weekend, and the Fall's other star-driven dramas (OUR BRAND IS CRISIS and STEVE JOBS to name just two) fared just as poorly, which may mean the death knell for any film without a CGI fight sequence and Stan Lee origins. It just makes me so sad that big, giant event films are the only ones getting people to fill theater seats. Think about the best movies ever made and I'm willing to bet that very few of them would get greenlit in this current culture. Somehow television has been perceived to be the right place for great drama.

Now don't get me wrong, SECRET IN THEIR EYES isn't a great movie. I saw the original, and just like that film, the new one suffers from a similarly flat tone and often sluggish pacing. Regardless, both have passion and a pretty absorbing, twisting, turning mystery tale to be told. While the former was told largely during Argentina's "Dirty War" of the 70s and 80s and then jumps forward 25 years, the remake juxtaposes the time after 9/11 with present day. In the new version, Ray (Ejiofor), a former investigator returns to the police station with new information on a murder case from 13 years prior. In doing so, he opens up old wounds, including those of his former partner Jess (Roberts) and the District Attorney, Claire (Kidman).

(SLIGHT SPOILER IN NEXT PARAGRAPH - if you haven't seen the trailer).

In 2002, the team was staking out a mosque with the hope of uncovering a terrorist plot. A body is found in a dumpster, which turns out to be Jess' daughter. A cat and mouse hunt for the killer spans the 13 years between the two storylines.

(END SPOILER).

This is a film about obsession. Ray, feeling guilt about a death, won't stop looking for the killer and he also keeps a flame lit for Claire, his unrequited love. Meanwhile, Jess has her own understandable agenda. While Roberts is remarkable, doing some of the finest work of her career, Ejiofor and Kidman have no chemistry together. Ejiofor tries mightily to coax something/anything out of Kidman, but she seems miscast and a little too icy for the proceedings. We need to see the simmering heat between them so that the eruption during an intense and terrific interrogation scene makes sense. Taken out of context, this scene is one of the film's best, with Kidman blazing through it with feral intensity. She just didn't build up to it with the kind of care she has usually demonstrated in previous work.

Roberts, however, nails her role as a sunken, depressed woman who wrestles with how to live a life after a terrible tragedy.

Technically, this is a beautifully made film, with Roberts' husband Danny Moder's cinematography giving it a layered, film noir look. One showy shot at a baseball stadium, which begins an exciting chase sequence, is a knockout in particular. The supporting cast, which includes Dean Norris, Alfred Molina, and Michael Kelly, does fine work, but Joe Cole, in duel roles, stands out. With very little screen time, he makes a haunting impact and impresses with his immersion into these characters.

Billy Ray is a good filmmaker. He isn't a visionary, and his aesthetic doesn't produce a lot of memorable images, but he does have passion and something to say. His next foray is in television with a remake of THE LAST TYCOON. I'm grateful that there are opportunities for challenging work in tv but lament the fact that movie theaters have become a place solely for big extravaganzas.

SECRET IN THEIR EYES, like the original, takes some surprising twists and turns, and ultimately has something provocative to say about justice. Do we ever really feel it when a perpetrator is caught? Does grieving end? Since a film like this, flawed as it may be, will have a harder and harder time reaching a cinema screen, I say that the grieving on my part will never end.