The Secret in their Eyes
If, like a few people I know, you have a bit of an aversion to films with subtitles I suggest you put it on hold long enough to see The Secret in Their Eyes at the Village Theatre.
It’s Argentinian, in Spanish with English subtitles, and quite wordy in places, so there is a chance you’ll miss things. Don’t worry—the film’s structure and its quality as a spectacle make it worth the effort and worth the suspension of any subtitle aversion.
Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darín), a retired criminal investigator, is presently writing a book about a 25-year-old rape and murder that won’t let him be. As the events of the past are recalled and replayed, Esposito and Irene Menendez Hastings (Soledad Villamil) play out a charming but seemingly hopeless relationship. At the time of the brutal crime (be warned) and its bumbling resolution by the police, Hastings worked in the court for which Esposito investigated. Her seeming unreachability convinced Esposito to conceal his true feelings for her at the time, but it’s not long before they begin to resurface when he returns, as a sadder and wiser (?) man, to ask her opinion of his novel.
Darin and Villamil give simply outstanding performances. They transcend the difficulties of the 25-year flashbacks and flash-forwards as well as the obstacles put in their characters’ way by the system and society in general. The wonderful thing about enjoying the work of previously unseen actors is that it’s easier to quickly suspend your disbelief and start to regard them as the people they are portraying. Darin and Villamil are a large part of the reason for the success of The Secret in Their Eyes in the 2010 Oscars. It won the gong for Best Foreign-Language Film.
The support players are great, too. As the humble, devastated husband of the murder victim, Morales (Pablo Rago) is chillingly convincing. His performance at the time of the murder and in the film’s “present time” makes the ending all the more dramatic.
As the dipsomaniac under-investigator Sandoval, Guillermo Francella is sensational. He provides the material for the film’s simple running gag: he is incompetent but crucial, he is deeply flawed but capable of great heroism. He is unlovable but he is loved.
The film’s context is all-important. Argentina in the mid 1970s was a corrupt and unhealthy place. It was also football-mad—the sequence in the stadium is a stunning piece of high-quality film-art. Justice was hard to come by and there were serious disincentives to bucking the system—people were known to simply disappear.
Juan Jose Campanella directed and co-wrote (with Eduardo Sacheri) The Secret in Their Eyes. It is based on Sacheri’s novel of the same name.
I liked nearly everything about this film, especially the tasteful and restrained soundtrack, the unfamiliar locales, the dream-like sequences, the performances (wherever you look) and the little jokes. What I liked most of all was the careful way the story is structured and the respect it pays the viewer in allowing us to work things out—why does Morales pull the curtains like that? Why four bullets?
The Secret in Their Eyes grabbed the crowd the night we saw it and I’m sure it will enthrall plenty more people while it’s here. I think you should consider being one of them.
Neil Wilson
