Review of Secret in Their Eyes (2015) by Dottheeyes — 20 Nov 2015

Years after a tragic murder interwove their lives and careers, a prosecutor (Nicole Kidman) and two federal agents (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julia Roberts) reluctantly reunite when one among them believes the elusive culprit, freed before due to thin evidence and inter-agency duplicity, has reemerged.

Roberts' bid to rid herself of any movie-star glamour to instead exude ashen intensity is admirable, but too self-conscious to connect, and Kidman is so restrained and underutilized as to barely register, but Ejiofor delivers a well-calibrated portrayal of despairing tunnel vision.

The depth and precision of his performance elevates Secret in Their Eyes, a sleepy and unimaginative English-language update of the award-winning Argentine crime drama of the same name. Post-9/11 anxiety proves a wan stand-in for Argentina's "Dirty War" as a historical framing device.

The past-present transitions inherent to the double-pronged structure are more confusing than intriguing; it nearly becomes a two-hour-plus game of Spot the Amount of Grey in Chiwetel Ejiofor's Beard.

And the twist ending, already rather contrived in the original, is more labored (and shorter on resonance) here, a too-cute sting prefaced by a montage of the heavy-handed hints interspersed throughout the rest of the film.