Review of Secret in Their Eyes (2015) by James T — 21 Nov 2015

(3 of 5 stars) A first rate cast leads this remake of the Oscar award winning foreign film but fails to fully impress. While the performances are strong, with Julia Roberts being the standout, the flimsy direction and hunger of the screenplay to take on more than it can adequately chew just doesn't hit the mark.

There are indeed some terrific scenes which each cast member having their "oh that would be their Oscar scene if they were nominated!" IF being keyword. For sadly I can't see any of them garnering the attention that the film aimed to capture.

There is a time in the 90's where this film would have been talk of the town, right up there with mysteries like PRIMAL FEAR. But times have changed. We are harder to impress and surprise these days.

.. and in the end, the film comes across as a little more than a well made CSI episode. Told via a series of flashbacks, the editing alone becomes a bit confusing... The cinematography is a mesh of spectacular (the baseball game is a high point, capturing the action of the game, tension of the characters, and looming grit of LA itself) to just plain dull.

It is the inconsistencies that slam the film into a dead end. For just as you find yourself pulled in with a great scene (Roberts on the murder scene being heartbreaking to Kidman in the interrogation room bringing in the laughs and "dont fuck with me" attitude!) you are slung right back into mediocre.

Smart ideas are never quite fully developed after their introduction, resulting in a film that never reaches the height of emotional pull and moral question that it proposes. The film is rocky and far from the grade of cinema I wish it were.

Will definitely give it another viewing. But, as for right now, I am letdown at this "average" film that could have been so much more!