Secret in Their Eyes

"Secret in Their Eyes" is a dark remake of the excellent Oscar winner "El secreto de sus ojos" (2009). The story of the Argentinian-Spanish film is magnificent and the cast of "Secret in Their Eyes" is top-notch. Despite the confused screenplay, the result is a film not comparable to the original but worthwhile watching. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Olhos da Justiça" ("Eyes of the Justice")

If you haven't seen "El Segreto de sus ojos" I beg you to stop reading and go check it out, it is, in my opinion, one of those rare and pure thrillers that keeps you glued to the screen for two hours. Yet, despite loving the original, I wasn't going into this one ready to bitch about it. I am someone who is very sniffy about remakes, but hey if you have an fascinating premise that can be explored through various styles and dynamics I am all for it. Especially in this case, I think that keeping some of the core material and turning other parts completely around could have made for a fascinating narrative, unfortunately the American remake, with the exception of maybe two or three ides, doesn't improve, explore or further the original in anyway and sometimes even edges the shot-by-shot remake treatment.

Look, this isn't a terrible thriller, but the emotional beats you are carried through are just the same of the original, it really seemed to be watching a cheap version of it. It is way too reminiscent of the original and at some moments I really felt exactly when I saw it. Whilst at other moments I kind of felt sorry for the remake because it doesn't manage to replicate some of the amazing photography the first one had and actually miserably fails: this film has some really, noticeably cheap cinematography and editing.

The performances are all kind of off beat. Julia Roberts is definitely the best one, even though she also has some low points. The rest of the cast is just flat honestly. Nobody even tries to come in and give it some palpable passion. The film is also inconsistent with tone and I am not sure they understood the fascination of the original because a lot of the focus points are just sidelined or shoehorned in.

That's also a real bummer, because the film does have just a couple of good ideas that aren't simply built on. They tread too much of the same ground and do it in a way that is simply too familiar. I can maybe think of one thing that was improved upon and that is mainly thanks to Julia Roberts' talent. The score is something that positively sticks out and probably the purest good thing to come out of the film.

In the end we are treated to a fine thriller that doesn't live up to its potential and only manages to justify its length thanks to memories of the original and the same emotions instead of relevant improvement and originality.

From just after the opening this effort began to look like Television with pretensions. Maybe it's time Hollywood and audiences got over the misguided following of styles from the likes of Tarantino and Scorsese - both who seem to have joined other overrated movie makers of the era...Now Billy Ray joins their club with this over-everything mess of a movie. More ridiculous flash-back, flash-forward techniques to leave the viewer simply wanting to give up. It even looks like the movie makers were confused and perhaps forgot to change some of the wardrobe between some time-skip scenes. Why further complicate an already overly complex screenplay??

Performers try to inject power into the unbelievable situations but don't often win (looked like they were as confused as the audience). Kidman was out of her element as the D.A. and has some of the movies most ridiculous dialogue and scenes. Julia Roberts wins the day with a powerfully realized performance. An interesting music score and cinematography also look like they were looking for a better script to bring to life. What a disappointment this is. Looks like a career going backwards.

When I saw the cast list, which includes Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and the brilliant Chiwetel Ejiofor I thought I was in for ninety minutes of sheer quality, you can forgive me for thinking that, when you take into account the number of awards shared by the stars, the budget, and the pedigree of the original movie. Unfortunately, Hollywood strikes again, the curse of the poor remake, it was virtually impossible to mess this up, but mess up they did. The acting was fine, strong production values, a clever story, in theory. However, the execution is so bad, the film lacks any degree of suspense, it lacks any degree of subtlety needed to tell such a story, and the characters are such that I didn't care less what happened to any of them, as I have no connection with anybody. The film should have been gripping, exciting, at least moved you to empathise with the characters, but no, it was utterly bland, such a waste of so much talent. I'm stunned by some of the positive reviews I've read, what are they seeing that I couldn't, all I did was yawn, and I'm easy to please in terms of thrillers.

Duller then dishwater. 5/10

A murder case is reopened after 13 years by an obsessive investigator. No character development and a lack of chemistry between the two leads leaves it feeling two dimensional. The subtlety that the films title suggests is no where to be found. Add to that, a narrative that repeatedly chops and changes between the present (2015) and 2002 leaves you constantly checking for grey hair on Chiwetel Ejiofor's head. It leaves a clumsy mess of a movie. The one saving grace perhaps is the performance from Julia Roberts. Worth a watch, but if you want a masterpiece then watch the original version.