Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Secret in Their Eyes

This is a very good film. It carries well the honor of Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Film. I like this category of award since there is a huge variety of film genre's that compete against each other and they are generally all good. Imagine that the U.S. would be able to only submit one film for a contest of best film in the world. Anyway, I am not saying this is the best film in the world, but it is a really good crime thriller/romance. Set in Argentina, a state prosecutor (Esposito) investigates the rape/murder of a young woman. Along the way, he befriends and consoles the widowed husband (Morales), trusts only his drunk of an assistant (Sandoval) and dances around his attraction to his boss (Irene). The investigation is intertwined with each of these three relationships throughout and is mostly seen in flashback as Esposito considers writing a novel about the case after he retires. Several things that make this worth seeing. The romance is subtle and at the same time pervasive. Esposito is not pursuing Irene overtly, but we still see the desire and the acceptance of class separation. The investigation of the crime is straight forward, with clues leading Esposito and the viewer down the path together. There are no big surprises here and perhaps I am dim, but by the end I could look back and say "How did I not see that coming 30 minutes ago?" Asking the audience to think about the meaning of justice and retribution and peace, while also allowing them to enjoy a well written story is not easy. But it is accomplished here.
4 stars (out of 5)

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