Customer Reviews

The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) ( El secreto de sus ojos ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

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When I saw this film on a recommendation of a friend I did not remember that this film was the academy award winner for the foreign language category. It was a pleasant surprise. The film is part murder mystery part romance. The two lead actors are phenominal here as good acting is when the actor disappears and one believes they are the embodyment of the characters they are playing. This is one of those films. The film grabs one at the begining. It is said detectives can be desensitized to the vilence of it all however this detective is surprised and shocked at the brutality at the crime scene and he becomes obsessed. Then he meets the husband. The husband is beyond distraught over the sudden brutal death of his beautifull bride. Believe me when I tell you one becomes as obsessed as the detective in finding the person responsible for this senseless crime. This film does a good job of drawing one in to the story and the acting is first rate. If you are a fan of good acting, good writing and low tech you will not be disappointed. I highly recommend this film.

I found "El Secreto de Sus Ojos" to be well deserving of its Academy Award win for Best Foreign Film. Frankly, had it been my choice I would had gone for Jacques Audiard's unforgettable and searing masterpiece, A Prophet [Blu-ray]. But there's no shame in losing out to Juan José Campanella's equally fine film.

Male directors aren't known for their male muses, but that's what Ricardo Darín is to director/co-writer Campanella. They've worked together many times in the past, most notably in the excellent Son of the Bride. They're a winning combination. I love to watch Darín act. As Benjamin Esposito, he's not classically handsome, but you can't keep your eyes off of him. For classic Darín, check him out in Nine Queens (Sub) [VHS], one of the best films you will ever see - a statement I can make with full confidence.

What to say of the regally beautiful Soledad Villamil who plays court secretary Irene Menéndez Hastings? I'm looking at her IMDB database and I see she's scandalously underused. In a perfect world, directors would be clawing their way to this woman to beg that she act in their film. What drives this movie's narrative is the long-term (25-year+) unrequited love and admiration between these two leading characters that sits right beneath the surface. Best scene in the film: a spontaneous good cop (Darín), bad cop (Villamil) routine that the two undertake in the interrogation of murder suspect Isidoro Gómez (an outstanding turn of creepiness and malevolence by Javier Godino). Villamil's character walked into the room under completely different pretenses, but - having been chilled by Gómez's penetrating, roving eye - she injects herself indelibly into the questioning. Her reaction and turn - and Darín's slow but sure understanding of her intent - is acting at its finest. It's the movie's pivotal scene done extraordinarily well.

A third fantastic performance rounds out the trio of leads: Guillermo Francella, almost unrecognizable from his bouncy, chipper performance as sports agent Batuta in the raucous Rudo Y Cursi [Blu-ray] (I loved that role - he was superb), is an alcoholic co-worker who is endured, carried and cared after by a good-hearted Esposito. Despite problems with drink, Francella's Pablo Sandoval does get up for the thrill of the chase and proves instrumental in tracking down Gómez.

Some other 'stars' of the film: the mellifluous Argentinean Spanish never sounded so good as it does here (especially leaving Ms. Villamil lips); the courthouse buildings in Buenos Aires are majestic and imposing; the makeup artists deserve a special shout-out - the characters appear in two story arcs 25 years apart. The make-up is perfect: you believe the aging process has taken place without any suspension of belief.

Winner of the 2010 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) tells the story of a recently retired court officer who decides to spend his newly acquired leisure time trying to write a book about a murder case he investigated in his youth. The more he explores the case, though, the more he is forced to examine his own life, both in the present day and in the past where he made the decisions that lead him to where he is now.

[...]

This ambitious film is simply magic, captivating, funny, disturbing and engaging. The sudden modulations that are included in this brilliant script convey the spectator from the easy laugh to the other side of the spectrum.

Somehow the nostalgical gaze hovers the film as a perpetuum mobile; that unerring chord that prevails in the tango as sublime musical genre. The ashes emerge from the memory. what it could have been and it wasn't.The affective memory is latent like a sleepless spirit. A horrid crime is the gate. The nasty sordidness, the intermingled conflict of interests will lead two men, to deal against the horror of a non sense judicial decision motivated by a web of conceits labeled as top secret.

Both men will respond of different ways. One a la Macbeth, the other a lo Hamlet, when the wheel of the destiny gathers them.

A fundamental movie and probably one of the three major jewels of the cinema in the past year.

Just like that. A towering masterpiece.

This is one of two movies that has ever managed to make my jaw drop with an ending I never saw coming. Really, there have only been two. The film is extraordinary.

Seductive, not in the visually-stimulating or romantic sense but in that it pulls you into the story and the way the writing is done, you cannot help but want to know what is going? Dime, por favor! It is a actually a main story re-told by a person who's own life is also a love story in this movie.

The idea that human nature is what it is and seldom do we change our passion is the premise and the reason for the title. The title is because whatever it is that drives us, we usually cannot take our "eyes" or our focus, literally and/or figuratively off this passion.

There are clues, but without giving away the plot, there is a lot to that draws the viewer in and allows you to ponder some things.
And therein lies the beauty of how the detective finally solves a decades old murder, and figures out what happened to a despondent, nearly-suicidal groom who lost his beautiful bride before they'd gotten through the honeymoon phase. So in love, those two, so how do you move on? and if your life shows that you have not moved on wholly and fully, as in never re-married, even if you had tried to date and never seem to want to find a more solid closure to the most horrific crime to tear your world apart? What of that?

There is also a sort of tertiary or third story of a friendship that the detective had with his co-worker/subordinate, who often was seen slacking off from work at his favorite bar, as he was an alcoholic. But one can never judge exactly how much or how far a person would go to give whatever they can for friend and the detective cover for him, time and again, picking up his bar tab, getting him home and out of trouble with his wife and getting him to work and sobering him up. This is sort of frequent routine for him with his co-worker and yet, the astounding and poignant discovery we finally as the viewers see him acknowledge as he realizes just how much his friend gave in his final hours is moving.

I know this review is ambiguous and wordy but this movie is just so powerful and so touching that I definitely was impressed by the beautiful script, with it's astounding plot, story line and interesting characters, the skilled acting and the amazing way the film reaches in and touches your heart.
Cinematography at it's best!

Director Juan Jose Campanella has authored many outstanding films as "Luna de Avellaneda" (Moon of Avellaneda) (2004), "El Hijo de la Novia" (The Son of the Bride) (2001), "El Mismo Amor la Misma Lluvia" (Same Love, Same Rain) (1999) and finally the present "El Secreto de Tus Ojos" (The Secret in Their Eyes) (2009).
With these films he has won 36 awards and 18 nominations all around the world!
He is a solid narrator; his films have definitely an Argentinean flavor and at the same time express universal human emotions and recognizable values.
His opuses are first of all entertaining and deal with everyday issues: mother-son relations, the effort of some neighbors to save a small Social Club from being erased and love stories. Over this backdrop Campanella skillfully play with his endearing characters.

"The Secret in Their Eyes" is a crime story, the efforts to discover and capture the criminal and finally, when official justice fails, revenge and retribution. At the same time there is a love story, some very funny comedic scenes and some very brutal ones.

The story follows: in a small downtown apartment a young woman is raped and murdered. Benjamin Esposito is the Court investigator assigned to the case and unusual gory crime scene steels him into a fervent desire to discover and punish the criminal.
With the help of his boss, Court Secretary Irene Menendez Hastings, and dipsomaniac clerk Pablo Sandoval he solves the case against the opposition of Judge Lacalle.
Those were turbulent years in Argentina under military dictatorship and a strange combination of issues sends Benjamin into forced internal exile and the wrongdoer enters the police forces.
Many years after the precedent events, the lives of the main characters cross again giving way to dramatic and unexpected ending.

Ricardo Darin Campanella's fetish actor (he is the main male character in all the above mentioned films) fleshes Benjamin superbly showing a vast repertory of emotions. This is not a coincidence. Darin is IMHO one of the best Argentinean actors, able to perform dramatic or comedic characters with outstanding conviction.
Beautiful Soledad Villamil as Irene delivers a performance full of subtleties and strength. Guillermo Francella as dipsomaniac sidekick of Darin is unforgettable.

Cinematography is in charge of Brazilian Felix Monti who has won many awards with this film and with many others, totalizing 18 wins and 4 nominations, all well deserved.
Finally "The Secret in Their Eyes" has won the Best Foreign Language Film of the Year Oscar!

This is a great provoking film for adult audiences. Do not miss it you'll be delighted!

Reviewed by Max Yofre.