Secret in their eyes

This remake of a 2009 Argentinian crime thriller ("El secreto de sus ojos") has been shifted to the US and plays against the high-tension backdrop of a Los Angeles braced for further terrorist attacks in the wake of 9/11.

The film in fact interweaves two timelines. In 2002, while investigating a potentially radical mosque, anti-terror squad cops Ray Kasten (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), Claire Sloan (Nicole Kidman) and Jess Cobb (Julia Roberts) are called to a nearby murder scene. The body turns out to be Jess’s daughter, who has been brutally raped and murdered. Ray is convinced that a young man named Marzin (Joe Cole), is the perpetrator. Various leads are pursued but the case hits a dead end when the suspect turns out to be an FBI informant in a major sting operation involving a potential terrorist sleeper cell. The film actually opens in 2015 with the return to LA of both Ray and Claire, now a District Attorney. Ray wants his old flame to re-open the murder case on the strength of newly turned-up ‘evidence’ of the new alias and whereabouts of Marzin, the never-prosecuted suspect in the 2002 case. Ray, it seems, has all this time been on a crusade to find and prosecute Marzin. Feeling partially responsible for what happened to the girl (he was supposed to meet her at the baker’s on the day she was killed), he has been obsessed over the case and spent the intervening years trawling through photos of possible suspects. Ray goes out on a limb to find his man, content to break every rule in the book to bring closure for his friend and colleague. But at a climactic moment in the events that follow, Jess reveals that actually the man they’ve been chasing is not the killer of her daughter. She shot him dead 13 years ago. Then, in one more final twist, we learn that Marzin is not in fact dead but that Jess has been keeping him captive all these years in her farmhouse. The movie ends with Ray handing her a gun. We hear the shot ring out as Ray digs a grave. Jess has her revenge… but closure? That’s up for discussion.

So, what did I think of Secret….? Some have criticised the director’s handling of the two time-frames, finding their juxtaposition confusing – this actually didn’t bother me too much. Others have dismissed the film as little more than a bog standard police procedural. I thought it was much more than that. This is a movie that deals with big themes, exploring the hazy interface between justice and revenge, and reminding us of the destructive effect vengeance has on the human soul. The ending took me completely by surprise (apparently it was hinted at throughout the film – missed that!) and this really raised the film’s game for me.

The quality of the acting is generally high. Chiwetel Ejiofor is excellent as a man driven by a desire to bring an end to a case that has haunted him. I found Nicole Kidman less impressive, although she does have a couple of good scenes. One critic said she comes across “like someone floating through a perfume commercial”. There is also the problem of a distinct lack of on-screen ‘magic’ between her and Ray – “Bacall-and-Bogey mismatched”, as one critic describes their pairing. Which brings me finally to Julia Roberts. Having only ever seen her in lightweight romantic comedies I thought her performance here was a revelation. She does her powerful scenes real justice and made the film believable for me… even the crazy ending!

Official trailer: https://youtu.be/N3b0PFCrayE