I’m “biast” (con): loved the original Argentinian film
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
The Oscar-winning Best Foreign Language Film from 2009 has been given a pointless, listless Hollywood makeover… one that has no idea how to translate the political situation of the Argentinian original, set partly in the politically repressive 1970s, into something with similar import in post-9/11 Los Angeles. In 2015, cop Ray (Chiwetel Ejiofor: The Martian) remains obsessed with bringing to justice the guy he’s positive raped and murdered the daughter of his FBI colleague, Jess (Julia Roberts: Mirror Mirror), back in 2002, and so he brings new evidence to L.A. district attorney Claire (Nicole Kidman: Paddington), hoping to get her to reopen the case. As the film jumps back and forth between 2002 and 2015, a scenario rife with unresolved coincidence unfolds: the body of Jess’s daughter, Carolyn (Zoe Graham: Boyhood), was found in a dumpster next to a mosque that Jess and her antiterrorism team have been surveilling, and the suspect may be someone they had been cultivating as an informer. But this is never anything more than potboiler stuff: there is no political depth or intrigue to it. And that’s the least of the film’s problems. The specific shape of Ray’s dedication to this case, which is wide and profound, is not supported by anything else in the story, certainly not by the depth of the relationship between Jess and Carolyn, which, as far as we can see, Ray was only an outside observer of. When Ray tells Jess in 2015 precisely how his commitment to this case has impacted his life, it’s preposterous… and it would be laughable if not for Ejiofor’s effortless sincerity. It’s a shame he brings more to the script that it has to offer him. Watch the original film instead.
See also my #WhereAreTheWomen rating of Secret in Their Eyes for its representation of girls and women.
I agree. it was dull and tedious. I mean Ray is supposed to be an FBI outsider from the East coast and assigned to work with this counter-terrorism team in LA of local cops and other. Yet he knows Jess, an LA cop, and her daughter so well. While Jess is supposed to be married, her husband was never shown or explained away. Lots of over-acting and pumped up foot chase scenes where a crippled old cop jumps about 20′ down at Dodgers Stadium. Just a mess.