Review of Secret in Their Eyes (2015) by Quincytheodore — 23 Nov 2015

The stars do their best to keep the drama intact, but presentation of the thriller feels redundant and the mystery angle barely produces any excitement.

From the first five minutes, Secret in Their Eyes already delivers several famous faces. It's apparent that the movie invests heavily on the cast, and while they are capable, the investigation story is rather bland and barely able to draw any emotional depth. I'm well aware that it's a remake, but it shouldn't be an issue or affect it in major way, considering that the movie is of average quality regardless.

The story might seem complicated at first with the many time jumps it presents, however it's practically the same case of homicide spanning for 13 years, with minute details sprinkled here and there. The daughter of a counter-terrorist agent is murdered, the team then pursues this case with two different agendas, one is justice for the daughter and the advancement of terrorist prevention.

Despite having the backdrop of murder, terrorism and rape at the same time, the case isn't complex. It's barely the level of good television drama as the investigation is pretty fundamental and offers little shocking twist. The two timelines are quite refined as audience can easily follow the pace, albeit the repeat story angle does feel cumbersome.

This might be an analogy of wallowing on the past, say that it is, that doesn't change the monotonous tone as well as occasional far-fetch development. Fortunately, the cast holds its own. Chiwetel Ejiofor as Ray is the main agent, working on the case at both time perspectives, he appears determined almost to a fault. The focus of his character is more towards drama, especially between him and his colleagues, than endearing cop procedural.

Nicole Kidman as Claire is the calmer prosecutor type, she's the love interest role on the subplot while also having some part on the case. She looks good, amazingly for older and younger version alike, a bit of resemblance to her role in The Interpreter. Julia Roberts plays the most emotional of them all, the mother of the victim. As expected she delivers the character well, especially since it's the maternal role she's familiar with.

Strangely, even with such high profile line-up, down to the supporting characters, there's low amount of thrill. The characters try to squeeze any drama they can, but the material is too sparse and it lacks the necessary tension to build a captivating mystery thriller.

It may have a couple of emotionally stirring moments due to the acting prowess, yet the presentation of the thriller feels redundant and for a nearly two hours movie, there's barely any fascination at the end.