|
 In cinemas Thursday [MA15+]
Director: Juan José Campanella
Runtime: 133mins.
Argentinean expat, Juan José Campanella has an interesting pedigree – after establishing himself at home as an award-winning director of television and film, Campanella skipped to the US and directed such diverse product as Law & Order, 30 Rock and House – but with The Secrets in Their Eyes, the writer-director has returned to his old stomping grounds to adapt Eduardo Sacheri’s novel, The Question In Their Eyes, to the screen.
Reuniting with Ricardo Darin – probably best known to western audiences for his outstanding performance as a duplicitous grifter in the late Fabián Beilinsky’s Nine Queens – Campanella also brings the smouldering Soledad Villamil to his project as the face of Benjamín Esposito’s (Darin) boss, the Harvard-educated Irene Menéndez Hastings. The Secret in Their Eyes begins with Benjamín’s retirement after almost three decades as an investigator for the state prosecutor, and while he has a reputation as a fierce and unrelenting operative, there are still cases that plague his memory.
As he settles down to write a novel based upon his career, Benjamín cannot tear himself away from one murder that remains unsolved. In flashback, we learn that new appointment of Elene as his superior coincides with the vicious rape and murder of Liliana Coloto (Carla Quevedo), and as the younger Benjamín struggles with false leads and the overpowering grief of Liliana’s widowed husband Ricardo (Pablo Rago), the case metamorphoses into something much more complicated and politically explosive. Twenty years later, Benjamín’s attempts at a novel reignite his frustration, and as he digs into the old mystery, the old man realises that Liliana’s unsolved murder is a particularly threatening can of worms.
At the time of the media screening, my first impressions rated this film as a pretty sophisticated midday movie, but with a few weeks to digest The Secrets In Their Eyes, I have to admit that this is quite a good film. A lot was going on in the mid-seventies in Argentina, and the country was by no means a safe place to live. From day to day, normal people lived in terror of ‘disappearing’ at the hands of fascist secret police, and Campanella and his cast and crew successfully bring to life the tension and fear of this oppressive state. He coaxes several very good performances from his actors – in particular, Guillermo Francella’s mischievous but ultimately tragic assistant Sandoval is memorable – and the tenuous relationship between Benjamín and Elene is suitably agonising.
***½
TIM MILFULL
|
| Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged. |
|
Be first to comment on this article
