Secret in Their Eyes

The cast alone should be a drawing point for this new film based on the 2009 Argentinian Best Foreign Film Oscar winner of the same name and the book by Eduardo Sacheri called The Question in Their Eyes. Director and writer Billy Ray (Breach, Shattered Glass) changes a few things to accommodate and make it more current for American audiences. The original film was during the 1970's Argentina's Dirty Wars, while this one starts in 2002 while this country is still reeling from 9/11. The acting is of course expectantly accomplished considering the talent involved. It's wonderful to see Julia Roberts back on the screen even without any makeup. But the movie it self moves like a standard police procedural with some ill defined political slant.

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Ray an FBI investigator attached to an LA counter terrorism unit. His partner is LA detective Jess (Julia Roberts) and the brand new DA assistant is Claire (Nicole Kidman). They are tasked with the job of watching a mosque for possible sleeper cells. Things go awry when a body is found in a dumpster in the building next door to the mosque. The team goes to check it out when Ray finds that the body is Jess's daughter. The movie goes back and forth in time beginning with Ray in present time finding what he believed was the prime suspect in the murder. He brings the information to Jess and Claire as he's no longer with the FBI having quit shortly after the events previously. For 12 years he's been scouring the face shoots of the thousands of faces in penal system to find the guy that got away.

Claire now the DA used to have a thing for Ray, and vice versa. She was engaged at the time and they never really resolved their relationship and it still lingers. Their unrequited love seems like a distraction in the scheme of things. Jess has also been promoted, but she looks even more worn and weary over the years. You can only tell Ray has aged by the gray in his hair. Which is one of the reasons the tossing back and forth between the decades makes the movie confusing. Chitwetel Ejiofor is intense and focused, Nicole Kidman is professional and somewhat distant, Jess used to be fun before the tragedy, but looks hollow and empty. Their performances are not to blame for the story which at times seems frustrating and depressing. It's obvious all characters are in need of closure in a case that has kept them in limbo all these years. But at what price?
(Review by reesa)