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

Secret In There Eyes, with an ensemble cast of Chiwetel Ejiofor,Julia Roberts, and Nicole Kidman one excepts nothing but a great thriller from these three very fine actors. However before entering the cinema hall I had already read some non flattering reviews of the film, so my expectations were in check.Secret In There Eyes is not a great film, nor is it a bad film either, its your average thriller which is enjoyable parts, and a stellar cast just makes the film more likeable. But I most say SITE reminded me of a recently watched Bollywood flick called Jazaba, which like this film tried to manage a balance between realistic cinema, and commercial entertaining cinema. The results for both films could have been better had they both sticked to one direction, but more on that later.

Story wise rising FBI investigators Ray and Jess,along with Claire,their district-attorney supervisor, are suddenly torn apart following the brutal murder of Jess' teenage daughter. Thirteen years later, after obsessively searching for the elusive killer, Ray uncovers a new lead that he is certain can permanently resolve the case and bring long-desired closure to the team. But no one is prepared for the shocking and unspeakable secret that follows.

Acting wise Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a earnest mature act, and his performance is the best of the lot.Julia Roberts tends to overact, and is too melodramatic at times, but in the climax portion she shows her acting prowess. Nicole Kidman looks extremely beautiful at age 50 I must say, and does a adequate acting job. Dean Norris was good.

If I was pseudo intellectual critic I could have shred this film to pieces, the film was over too Melo dramatic,it seemed like a low budget affair, the story had huge plot holes, and it was completely logic less at times, for example finding the serial killer through a picnic picture, like come on. However my criteria for critiquing a film is that was I bored through the film or not,and my answer for this film is no. I mean the film was a remake of a highly critical acclaimed spanish film so the director Billy Ray does deserve some brunt for messing up. But the film is a decent thriller all in all, there is a bunch of twists and turns like the unexpected climax that was highly commercialized too.

Get a certain reaction from the viewers but thats okay,the film has some really good emotional depth to get the viewers glued into the film, and the acting is very good. But with the material and actors the makers had, a better film could have been made, for a thriller the film was not racy enough, and there many weird comical scenes like when Nicole Kidman blouse buttons rip, what was the need for that, too make the film sleazy, thats commercializing at its best.

Overall if your a fan of the thriller genre you can watch Secret In There Eyes, but its more of a dvd watch, because I have a feeling that film might feel a little more appealing when have not spent $11.00 dollars on it. The film deserves a 2.5/5* but I am in a good mood and in my opinion its hard to make a serial.

Killer thriller film because the genre's already been explored alot,so I'll give the film...

3/5* or 6/10.