The Secret in Their Eyes, 2009

charlie_says

Just finished watching this wonderful thriller and touching double love story. Highly recommend it. Very impressed. Think it is out on DVD now

Written and directed by Juan José Campanella. Spanish language, Argentinian origin, El secreto de sus ojos - original title.



http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/secretintheireyes
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305806/

johnny_ultimate

Was pleasantly surprised by this. I don't have much faith in the Best Foreign film Oscar after they gave it to the pretty bland The Counterfeiters, but this is a very enjoyable piece of work. Does it deserve to be called the best foreign film of the year, or last year? No. But it's a solid thriller in its own right. The actual thriller aspect is more down to earth than I expect these days - many of which tend to layer conspiracy theories upon the initial simple mystery. This uses a fairly cut and dry case as a basis to explore interesting themes like revenge and the perceived shortcomings of the justice system. Added to this are well drawn characters who have their own private turmoils and 'secrets' - a central love story of sorts keeps things focused. Normally I dislike films that are structured through a mix of flashbacks and 'today' sequences, but this uses it as a central device in exploring the ideas and themes the director puts forward, which is very welcome.

There may be a few hokey monologues and plot contrivances

(and the 'running alongside a train' cliche doesn't quite work as an opening gambit)

, but it chugs along at a very engaging pace, and there are some fantastic scenes like

the football stadium chase (technically impressive!), the interrogation and the final 'twist' of sorts, which is pleasantly morally ambiguous.

It might appear at first to be a fairly standard thriller, but it has enough ideas to make it more than that. And it's funny too, which I more than certainly didn't expect!

Zillah

I highly reccommend this movie. My absolute favourite over the last few weeks. Really solidly engaging film.

Feu

i'm going this week, been looking forward to it, glad to see the positive reviews!

duckworth

Will be going to see this during the week. Although, I had heard it was a bit overblown, and run of the mill.

It beat one of my favourite films of the past 10 years, 'The White Ribbon' to the oscar, so it better be good!!

Feu

duckworth wrote: »

It beat one of my favourite films of the past 10 years, 'The White Ribbon' to the oscar, so it better be good!!

i know, very controversial for many!!! i don't think my dad has yet recovered from the shock, that anything could be better than The White Ribbon!

johnny_ultimate

It certainly isn't as good or deserving an award winner as the White Ribbon. And yes, you could definitely call it overblown on occasion. Within these confines, though, it's certainly a very engaging film. Don't go in expecting greatness, and you will probably like it for what it is. The Oscar perhaps raised expectations too high - and a lot of reviews point it out - but it's a solidly entertaining and intelligent film. It's not Haneke, but then when have the Academy ever given the most deserving film the award? It also has the benefit of having been released after a few weeks of unexciting releases!

Feu

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

It certainly isn't as good or deserving an award winner as the White Ribbon. And yes, you could definitely call it overblown on occasion. Within these confines, though, it's certainly a very engaging film. Don't go in expecting greatness, and you will probably like it for what it is.

thanks johhny, good adevice, yep, i'm not expecting too much, read a 5 star review of it somewhere, but am taking it with a handful of salt! i'll give my punt on it when ive been, tho i'm not much of a reviewer

The Oscar perhaps raised expectations too high - and a lot of reviews point it out - but it's a solidly entertaining and intelligent film. It's not Haneke, but then when have the Academy ever given the most deserving film the award?

don't get me started!

It also has the benefit of having been released after a few weeks of unexciting releases!

gosh so true. the most exciting release of the past few weeks was probably 5 easy pieces!!!

the_monkey

Was a good film allright, and it's quite easy to see why it beat the white ribbon which was a pile of steaming crap...

duckworth

Saw it tonight, not sure what to make of it. Thought the whole football stadium sequence was breathtaking. Other parts kind of rang false though.

johnny_ultimate

duckworth wrote: »

Saw it tonight, not sure what to make of it. Thought the whole football stadium sequence was breathtaking. Other parts kind of rang false though.

The football scene was extraordinary, although there must have been some technical trickery afoot (at least in the opening 'helicopter' shot). But yeah, some plot points didn't work all that well:

the rapist being released and given a gun (!), the ease with which Esposito brushed off the final revelation, some of the romantic moments.

Mainly, though, it was the surprisingly interesting themes, the (mostly) well-drawn characters and those moments - such as the stadium sequence - that kept me involved!

duckworth

The one part I thought was really off was Spoiler :

the whole interrogation scene. Reverse psychology?? What?? He confesses after they say he has a small dick?? It seemed far too easy and very cliched

- I thought it cheapened what had been a very engaging film to that point.

Really good acting though - especially the alcoholic sidekick guy, he was hilarious!

henryporter

the_monkey wrote: »

Was a good film allright, and it's quite easy to see why it beat the white ribbon which was a pile of steaming crap...

Although I didn't enjoy 'The White Ribbon' (due to the fact that I mostly watch movies for entertainment and escapism) I would applaud the quality of film-making and photography. You shouldn't be so dismissive of such work without explaining why.

Anyway back to the subject - the other movie this beat at the Oscars was 'A Prophet' any thoughts on that. I haven't seen this movie yet but hopefully this weekend.

Decuc500

I would be hard pushed to decide if The Secret in Their Eyes was better than A Prophet. They are two great movies with so much going on, I'd have to watch them both again.

It's been a good year so far for non-English language films with these two, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Mother and two films I saw at the Dublin film festival, South Korea's Castaway on the Moon and the Danish film Terribly Happy.

Feu

just went to see it today, 1 oclock house in the IFI, pretty busy actually i was surprised.

I really enjoyed it, i love thrillers, but they so often sacrifice character development for suspense and twists. I felt that this film built up the key characters really well. I was on the edge of my seat for large parts of it. Like others above, i felt the flashbacks really added to the suspense, and the pace, and worked well. The only kind of criticism and it's not really that even, but it was a bit strangely paced. I mean the suspense and pace did build, which was good, but in a way

it was all jokes and prank calls at the start, then it just got so much darker obviously with your man being released and the friend being killed and although i liked the very end part, because i am a woman , it was a bit too sentimental, maybe they could have let that, and other parts to the imagination?

The music was brilliant, very atmospheric, i'll have to check out who it was. I loved the photography/cinematography, there seemed to be a fairly heavy filter used at times, but i really liked it. It just felt quite real, nearly documentary at times. it was much more visually realistic than i thought it was going to be - i.e. the clothes, the dated sets, and the flashback/current ageing makeup was quite well done.

The only part i felt wasn't done well was

when Gomez was released, and the other fella, who at the start seemed to be 'on the same professional level' as espositio, was then suddenly able to have him released to spite your man - surely he would not have that power? I read in a review that this was due to the "political situation" in argentina at that time, i.e. rife corruption, but maybe a couple of lines to clarify it a bit more would leave less questions

henryporter wrote: »

Although I didn't enjoy 'The White Ribbon' (due to the fact that I mostly watch movies for entertainment and escapism) I would applaud the quality of film-making and photography. You shouldn't be so dismissive of such work without explaining why.

i totally agree with you on this HP. I feel i am able to say that there were elements of films that i liked even if i didn't like the whole thing, i.e music, costume, makeup, sets whatever, but people can be very negative! [not necessarily the above poster, but just in general]

Anyway back to the subject - the other movie this beat at the Oscars was 'A Prophet' any thoughts on that. I haven't seen this movie yet but hopefully this weekend.

I too will be watching A prophet this wknd

glanman

Thats gas Feu, I was in the IFI yesterday for the same show. I thought this was an excellent film...

There were a few times when I thought it was coming to an end and then it took of at another pace in another direction. As for people saying the idea of Gomez the rapist getting a gun and job etc... an amount of time had passed for the other clerk(??) to get relocated and promoted and also the fact that corruption would have been rife.

I wholeheartedly recommend people go see this film, it performs so well on so many levels. The humour in this film was a great surprise!

Feu

glanman wrote: »

Thats gas Feu, I was in the IFI yesterday for the same show. I thought this was an excellent film...

There were a few times when I thought it was coming to an end and then it took of at another pace in another direction. As for people saying the idea of Gomez the rapist getting a gun and job etc... an amount of time had passed for the other clerk(??) to get relocated and promoted and also the fact that corruption would have been rife.

I wholeheartedly recommend people go see this film, it performs so well on so many levels. The humour in this film was a great surprise!

haha cool, yeh it was very busy for a wednesday lunchtime! Yeh, you're right glanman, there were some really hilarious parts, generally with the sidekick/colleague guy.

+1 highly recommended!

johnny_ultimate

Yeah the biggest surprise of this film was how many times I found myself chuckling It's a thoughtful film that takes the time to entertain as well, which is something others could learn from.

patch

Great movie, really enjoyed it.
I'd probably rate it a little higher than dragon tatoo.
As for un prophet, thats a brilliant movie.
I really must check out that white ribbon which beat both of those movies to the oscar.

Feu

no, secret in their eyes beat both of those to the Oscar

patch

Feu wrote: »

no, secret in their eyes beat both of those to the Oscar

Lol..... cheers for that, I'll check it out anyway!

Dave147

Hate resurrecting an old thread but just watched this again for the third time and it's instilled itself as my favourite film, for numerous reasons. The stadium scene was a thing of beauty to behold, serious work went into it and it paid off. The humour, in particular Sandoval but to a lesser extent Esposito too, it didn't cheapen the seriousness of the film at all but just gave you a little break from the general heaviness of the plot. I loved the chemistry between Esposito and Menendez, thought they worked extremely well together.

I never felt bored throughout the entire film, it was well paced with enough going on to keep you interested, loved the little touches, adding the 'A' to "Te mo" to become "Te Amo", changing from "I Fear" to "I love you", which referenced back to the typewriter and also Esposito's hesitation. I could sit here and try and over analyse it and try and pick flaws (there aren't many), but I rather just enjoy beautiful cinema when it comes along, and appreciate this art, because that's exactly what it is.

Anyway, I'm no film critic(obviously) but just thought this film deserved all the plaudits and surprised the last discussion here was 2010!

delbertgrady

It's easily one of my favourite films of the last ten years. To my dismay, I discovered recently that there's a remake out in October with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, Dean Norris and Julia Roberts.

the_monkey

Sh*te film to be honest ....

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

How would an American remake work? So much of this movie hinges on the political circumstances of Argentina at that time.

Dave147

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

How would an American remake work? So much of this movie hinges on the political circumstances of Argentina at that time.

I'm kinda hoping it doesn't work, sick **** of Hollywood remaking foreign gems, leave well alone.