The Secret In Their Eyes [DVD]

This is an extremely delicate and candid look into the mind of a detective and prosecutor in Buenos Aires, Argentina who has had a deep and secluded love for his co-worker, and cannot remove the memories of one unresolved case from his youth. The transitions between the two vastly different time zones are fluid, with the same actors playing both roles flawlessly. The young Esposito, played here by Ricardo Darín, is boisterous, romantic, and arrogant, while the older Esposito is humble, tender and regretful. He looks weathered even in the way he holds his shoulders and drinks his coffee. This is the same for the female role, played by Soledad Villamil, except she has arguably made something more of her life, starting a family and not allowing herself to buckle under the memory of a young woman brutally raped and murdered in the 70's. It is not until Esposito decides to write a novel based on the crime that she is reminded of the hard truth that the criminal was never prosecuted, but it also digs up old feelings between the two characters. The now aged and retired prosecutor had somehow hoped that the final resolution of this crime would also resolve his seemingly undying affection for this upper-class, beautiful and talented woman, that if he managed to bring all the facts together and finish the puzzle then she would fall to his knees and forgive his past failure to simply tell her how he felt before it was too late. They both secretly feel bitter for being so fearful and so detached from each other, but it is Esposito who has let it get the better of him, and this novel is his way of returning to his youth and trying again.What we then witness is a crime-thriller that is very much like a TV show more so than a cinematic adventure of debauchery and treachery, and that is why I love it so much. It is entirely unpretentious and allows the actors to truly live out the roles as if it were a real story that had happened exactly as it was written originally and filmed. Although there are many exceedingly adventurous and slick shots, particularly the scene in which the two detectives are chasing a possible suspect in a football stadium, at no point did I feel like I was watching a Hollywood movie with famous actors and hundreds of programmers editing CGI sequences. This was a real film dedicated to a real story and to a group of real characters. Each shot seemed important yet reserved and paced perfectly, allowing the tension to grow between both the two lead characters and the hunt for the killer.This film, to me, was a romance. It was Badlands was to romance. It was True Romance was to romance. It was unconventional, and thus very believable. Love is often strange; it twists and turns in all sorts of different directions. This isn't a romance for the romantic; it is a romance for the realistic and for those broken and full of nostalgia, for those that cannot forget the past and move on. Esposito and his good friend, the drunken and depressed Sandoval, are perfect examples of men with one too many regrets. It is wonderful to see sad stories such as this make us feel so passionate and humbled. It also teaches you in a roundabout and tricky sort of way that "if you keep going over the past, you're going to end up with a thousand pasts and no future." This was spoken by the character Ricardo Morales, the man who was left with the memory of a dead wife. Also, the line "How do you live a life full of nothing?" is another example of how poignant and poetic this film is, all in an unassuming way. There are seemingly endless lines full of moving sentiments. It makes repeat viewings a must.There is also something else incredibly vivid and just as powerful as the hidden love between the two leads; and that is the overlap of revenge and justice. The ending is breathtaking because it actually makes you think "What would I do in this situation? Would I be able to hold back my anger for the sake of true justice? Is true justice ever going to be possible in such a crooked system? If so, should I take matters into my own hands?" These questions are asked throughout the entire film, and the twist in the ending throws at it you even more forcefully than before. You are demanded to make a decision yourself, and its a revealing question to answer. You see a part of yourself in each and every one of the characters, even the criminal, and so you feel something for them. That makes the ending, and the film as a whole, truly undying. As the widowed Ricardo Morales conludes, "You said life."

In 2010 some of the best films were subtitled,White Ribbon,A Prophet and this,The Secret in their Eyes.I own all 3 on DVD.However the first two are head and shoulders above this,as they owe nothing to Hollywood,they are unique works by auteur directors,working out their own vision.Haneke can place himself in the company of another auteur(refusnik),Godard. This is a throw-back to old Hollywood films and has a formulaic,clichéd,soap-opera feel to it. Having said that it is head and shoulders above what now is coming out of Hollywood.Hollywood is already about to do the remake.But this did win oscar for best foreign film.Having said that there are many layers to this film.Benjamin Esposito(Darin) a retired criminal investigator,is attempting to write a novel based on a case that has haunted him since 1974,two years before the military coup in Argentina-the brutal rape and murder of a young schoolteacher.This is not a murder mystery,as the culprit,Isidoro Gomez(Godino) was caught at the time.But the injustice of the judicial system allowed him to go free,due to his help in indicting "subversives"while in prison. Meanwhile Esposito is helpless to intervene and he is not an untouchable like his judge supervisor,Irene Menendez Hastings(Villamil) with whom he is in undeclared love.He befriends the victim's husband Morales(Rago)and is continually trying to keep his drunkard colleague off the bottle.He has to flee for safety north.The central love story is well acted by Darin and Villamil,but professional protocol and class keeps them apart. Eposito deduces Gomez is the guilty one from many photographs where he's gazing at Lillian Colotta(his would-be victim).There is a bungled comic robbery of Gomez'letters from Gomez' mother's house.Hastings intuits Gomez' guilt from his eyes,and goading him she unzips his confession,and he his penis to disprove her unmanning of him.This shows her in a strange change of character. Esposito's writing the novel acts as a framing device,covered by the film's flash-backs and flash-forwards as he questions people involved.Campanella seems to question the reliability of memories:are they memories or `memories of memories'? Do they evaporate or slide away?However we are not digging too deep nor led outside of our comfort zone.The result,a glossy film made-for-the-international-awards-markets,which doesn't pack a punch.True Argentinians wont be bought off by this.There are some terrific scenes like the one-take shot flying-in into a football stadium,where the investigators pick out Gomez in the crowd and give chase;an unbearably tense scene in a lift which tells you all about the new Argentina; and Sandoval's killing by government goons.Also the comic excellence of Sandoval the side-kick in a tragic-comic role.I found the love story implausible between Esposito and his boss,but a useful emotional anchoring device.The film is too digressive and ruminative to grip like a thriller.The deepest relationship is between Esposito and Morales,inspired as he is by the other's love for his dead wife.Rago is excellent in this downbeat role.