the secret in their eyes movie review

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"The Secret in Their Eyes" opens with the meeting, after many years, of Benjamin ( Ricardo Darin ) and Irene ( Soledad Villamil ). She is a judge. He is a retired criminal investigator. They are just a little too happy to see each other. Twenty-five years ago, when she was assistant to a judge and he was an investigator under her, they were involved in a brutal case of rape and murder. Benjamin visited the crime scene, and the dead woman's corpse spoke eloquently of the crime's brutality. Two workmen were arrested and convicted. Benjamin was never convinced of their guilt. Now he tells Irene that on his own time he wants to write about the case.

This commences an absorbing back and forth journey through time, between Buenos Aires in 1974 and 2000, which reopens both the crime and the unacknowledged feeling that has remained all these years between Irene and Benjamin. That's where their personal appeal comes into play. The actress Soledad Villamil is, forgive me, my idea of a woman. Grown-up, tallish, healthy, brunette, sane and perhaps she was cast for her eyes, because the film contains a lot of closeups, and they're required to conceal secrets. Think of Anne Archer . Playing Irene at ages 25 years apart, she is never too young or too old, but standing right there.

Ricardo Darin makes her worthy partner as Benjamin. His rank was too low, his pay too small, her presence too assured for him to trust the signals he must have known she was sending. He's one of those men on whom a beard seems inevitable. There is a sadness about him. He has never stopped thinking about the murder case, and we understand -- although the movie is indirect about this -- that the investigation was mishandled at the time because of Argentina's diseased right-wing politics.

Without being too obvious about it, the film reassembles the strands of two stories, the murder case and the unfinished emotions between Benjamin and Irene. It is filled with vivid characters. Sandoval ( Guillermo Francella ) is Benjamin's alcoholic assistant in the investigation, one of those drunks who may be incompetent but is not useless. He and Benjamin, and all the legal-side workers, engage in the droll formality of addressing one another by fanciful titles. Morales ( Pablo Rago ) is the husband of the dead woman, still obsessed with her death. Gomez ( Javier Godino ) has always been Benjamin's real suspect, and there is a scene involving him in a soccer stadium that I have no idea how it could have been filmed, special effects or not.

Juan Jose Campanella is the writer-director, and here is a man who creates a complete, engrossing, lovingly crafted film. He is filled with his stories. "The Secret in Their Eyes" is a rebuke to formula screenplays. We grow to know the characters, and the story pays due respect to their complexities and needs. There is always the sense that they exist in the now and not at some point along a predetermined continuum. Sometimes I watch a film unspool like a tape measure, and I can sense how far we are from the end. Sometimes my imagination is led to live right along with it.

"The Secret in Their Eyes" surprised many by winning the 2010 Academy Award for best foreign-language film. Michael Haneke's " The White Ribbon ," another considerable film, was thought to be the front-runner. The academy did a good thing when it reformed the foreign-language film voting, requiring all voters to see all five finalists. In 2009, with the Japanese winner " Departures ," and again in 2010, the voters had an advantage over the rest of us. Who is to say if they were right? They voted as they felt, and in today's unhappy distribution scene, the Oscar means your chances of seeing this film are much increased. You won't regret it. This is a real movie, the kind they literally don't make very much anymore.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

The Secret in Their Eyes (2010)

Rated Unrated for a rape scene, violent images, some graphic nudity and language

129 minutes

Carla Quevedo as Liliana

Ricardo Darin as Benjamin

Soledad Villamil as Irene

Guillermo Francella as Sandoval

Pablo Rago as Morales

Jose Luis Gioia as Baez

Javier Godino as Gomez

Written and directed by

• Juan Jose Campanella

Based on the novel by

• Eduardo Sacheri

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Film Review: ‘Secret in Their Eyes’

A superb supporting turn by Julia Roberts is the most welcome revelation of this clever but workmanlike English-language remake.

By Justin Chang

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Long-buried truths are exhumed, and a foreign-language Oscar winner gets a clever but workmanlike Hollywood retooling, in “ Secret in Their Eyes ,” a time-shuffling tale of murder, corruption, paranoia and the many varieties of obsession. Neatly swapping in post-9/11 counterterrorism for late-’70s Argentinean political upheaval, writer-director Billy Ray ’s thriller-procedural plays like a serviceable feat of narrative surgery, though it does boast one masterstroke in the reworking of a key role, played here by Julia Roberts with a piercing restraint that silences any lingering doubt that she was born to be more than just America’s sweetheart. This second major release from STX Entertainment (after the recent sleeper hit “The Gift”) should parlay its cast names, including Nicole Kidman and Chiwetel Ejiofor , into solid year-end counterprogramming.

A 2009 Spanish-Argentinean co-production directed by Juan Jose Campanella (credited as an exec producer on the remake), “The Secret in Their Eyes” made quite a splash internationally, sweeping Argentina’s top film prizes and nabbing the Oscar for best foreign-language film over the likes of Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet” and Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon.” It’s no surprise that Academy voters went for Campanella’s “Secret,” a glossed-up pulp fiction that gestured often enough in the direction of seriousness — a twinkly rumination on art and memory here, a non-committal smattering of politics there — to be mistaken for the real thing. This English-lingo remake, while similarly superficial, at least has fewer pretensions and more honest grit, even if its relentless hopscotching back and forth in time initially feels busier than the hard-nosed detectives and attorneys introduced in the opening stretch.

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In Los Angeles circa 2015, former FBI investigator Ray Kasten (Ejiofor) returns to his old offices armed with possible evidence of the new identity and whereabouts of Marzin, the never-prosecuted suspect in the 2002 rape and murder of a teenage girl. The body, as we see in the ensuing flashbacks, was found in a dumpster behind a mosque, and so the investigation fell to Kasten and his tough-talking partner, Jess Cobb (Julia Roberts), both part of a special task force cracking down on terrorism in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks. (Terrorism, in this context, translates to Islam, a fact that unfortunately lends the movie more than a little topical resonance.) In the script’s most gut-wrenching departure from the original story, the dead girl turned out to be Cobb’s daughter — a horrific coincidence that might have been laughable on screen if Ejiofor and Roberts didn’t play it with such anguished conviction, amplified by the mournful, non-exploitative visual approach favored by Ray and his cinematographer, Danny Moder (shooting in a gray-and-brown palette redolent of both professional drabness and mud).

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Ray’s script fidgets restlessly between past and present, teaching the viewer to keep track of time through the insistent darkening and lightening of Ejiofor’s beard. In 2015, Kasten and his trusty old colleague Bumpy (Dean Norris) attempt to ensnare the man they think is Marzin — against the better judgment of district attorney Claire Sloan (Kidman), who, for Cobb’s sake, can’t bear to see the perpetrator slip through their fingers yet again. Back in 2002, we learn, Marzin (Joe Cole) was an undercover informant who had infiltrated a terrorist cell possibly connected to the mosque — an “in” that made him virtually untouchable where the Bureau was concerned. But just as Campanella’s film reduced its military and political context to socially conscious window dressing, so this “Secret in Their Eyes” treats its post-9/11 moment as a slippery red herring, albeit one that effectively underscores how competing government interests can thwart the pursuit of justice.

Despite all this skullduggery and compromise, Kasten believes, the truth will inevitably betray itself in a person’s guilty countenance — whether it’s in the pages of police mugshots that he spends hours poring over, or in the seemingly innocuous company-picnic photo that exposes a criminal in the making. Of course, operating on that sort of pure, anti-establishment instinct can lead even a skilled detective to bend the law to his or her advantage, especially when it concerns the death of a police officer’s child (another reason why the revision of Roberts’ role works so well). Even with that excuse, Kasten abuses the system to a borderline-ridiculous degree, at various points seizing evidence without a warrant and planning a (successful) stakeout based on the barest of hunches.

It’s not the only way the detective blurs the boundaries between professional obligation and personal desire, to judge by the romantic attraction that continues to flicker between him and Sloan, even after a 13-year absence. Perhaps flicker is too strong a word. Refreshing as it is to see a recent uptick in no-big-deal interracial relationships (between this and the Will Smith-Margot Robbie starrer “Focus”), Kidman and Ejiofor, both sturdy and empathetic here, never muster much in the way of chemistry; so tenuous is their characters’ romantic bond that their colleagues have to keep bringing it up, as if to remind us that it’s still a factor. It’s by far the weakest dramatic and thematic link in a story that’s ostensibly about the prison of desire — how we are all slaves, in the end, to the unique feelings, drives and obsessions that make us who we are.

As for “Secret in Their Eyes,” the movie manages to register its own identity in gradual, piecemeal fashion, even as it doesn’t deviate too dramatically from its predecessor’s narrative template. Ray reproduces some of the original film’s most memorable images and sequences wholesale, including a delicious tell-off scene in which Sloan brilliantly uses the language of sexual humiliation to force a suspect’s confession, and a lengthy zoom shot of an athletic stadium that’s as impressive as it is gimmicky. Yet while this PG-13-rated movie generally avoids the lurid violence and sexuality that crept in around the corners of Campanella’s “Secret,” the filmmaking also feels appreciably grittier and less precious — the work of a smart, no-nonsense craftsman who, as he demonstrated in his fine earlier efforts, “Breach” and “Shattered Glass,” is clearly no stranger to spinning tales of deception, rogue behavior and institutional intrigue.

Where Ray proves most assertive is in his wise choice of ensemble players, who include Norris, channeling a less swaggering but equally dependable version of “Breaking Bad’s” Hank Schrader, and Michael Kelly, eminently hissable as an FBI colleague who, like Sloan’s D.A. predecessor (Alfred Molina), frustrates Kasten’s investigation at every turn. And then there’s Roberts, who, after her impressive, Oscar-nominated turn in “August: Osage County,” continues to explore and deepen her talent for sharp, resonant character work in left-of-center roles. Looking weary and downright haggard at times (especially next to the pale and perfectly coiffed Kidman, who, it must be said, seems to age the least of the three principals), Roberts brings an acrid sense of bitterness and sorrow to this exceedingly sharp-witted sleuth, registering the cruel passage of time and the toll of unspeakable tragedy in every careworn feature and vocal quaver. “You look a million years old,” someone tells her at one point, but this is no self-conscious deglam job; it’s a skillful and humane turn from an actress whose darkly penetrating gaze comes closest to fulfilling the mystery of the title.

Reviewed at the Landmark, Los Angeles, Nov. 4, 2015. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 111 MIN.

• Production: (Spain-U.S.) An STX Entertainment (in U.S.) release presented with IM Global, in association with Route One/Union Investment Partners, of a Gran Via production, a SITE Prods. and Willies Movies production, in association with Ingenious Media. Produced by Mark Johnson, Matt Jackson. Executive producers, Stuart Ford, Deborah Zipser, Russell Levine, Lee Jea Woo, Robert Simonds, Matt Berenson, Jeremiah Samuels, Juan Jose Campanella. Co-producers, John Ufland, Juan Antonio Garcia Peredo, Chris Lytton. Co-executive producer, Pyung Ho Choi.
• Crew: Directed, written by Billy Ray, based on the film “The Secret in Their Eyes” written by Juan Jose Campanella, Eduardo Sacheri. Camera (color, widescreen), Danny Moder; editor, Jim Page; music, Emilio Kauderer; music supervisor, David Schulhof; production designer, Nelson Coates; art director, Colin De Rouin; set decorator, Andrea Joel; set designers, Patricia Klawonn, D. Tracy Smith; costume designer, Shay Cunliffe; sound, William B. Kaplan; sound designers, Peter Staubli, Ann Seibelli, D. Chris Smith; supervising sound editor, Karen Baker Landers; re-recording mixers, Ron Bartlett, Elliot Tyson; special effects supervisor, Michael Lantieri; visual effects supervisor, John Heller; visual effects, Mr. X; stunt coordinators, David Rowden, Dennis Fitzgerald; associate producers, Sam Ha, Min Young Hong; assistant director, Tom Davies; casting, Sharon Bialy, Sherry Thomas.
• With: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Dean Norris, Michael Kelly, Joe Cole, Zoe Graham, Alfred Molina. (English dialogue)

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The secret in their eyes — film review.

A riveting Argentine thriller spiked with witty dialogue and poignant love stories, "The Secret in Their Eyes" interweaves the personal lives of a team of state prosecutors with a manhunt spanning 25 years.

By The Associated Press

The Associated Press

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SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain — A riveting Argentine thriller spiked with witty dialogue and poignant love stories, “The Secret in Their Eyes” interweaves the personal lives of a team of state prosecutors with a manhunt spanning 25 years. Director Juan Jose Campanella (“Same Love, Same Rain,” “Son of the Bride”) is one of Argentina’s most communicative storytellers, and this entry qualifies as a high point in his career.

Holding the viewer in thrall for most of its two-hour running time, it has the kind of universal appeal that unites critics and audiences and can look forward to worldwide sales that could jump beyond the usual Spanish-language markets. Released locally in August to strong boxoffice, the film has been a favorite in the San Sebastian Film Festival’s competition lineup.

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Not for nothing has Campanella shot 16-odd episodes of “Law of Order,” whence the unusual idea of setting a thriller in the marbled halls of Argentina’s state prosecutors’ offices, amid the comings and goings of high court judges and the cynical banter of lawyers Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darin) and his alcoholic best friend Pablo (comic Guillermo Francella).

One day in 1985, new judge Irene Menendez Hastings (Soledad Villamil) turns up. A beautiful sophisticate with a degree from Cornell and family connections, she instantly steals Benjamin’s heart. His secret love for her across an unspoken class gap is a source of underlying tension throughout the film.

Campanella and co-scripter Eduardo Sacheri open the story 25 years later, when Benjamin is a white-haired retiree who has decided to write a novel about a horrific case he can’t get out of his mind. He visits Irene, now some kind of chief judge, in his old office to get her reaction and discuss the case.

Flash back to the brutal rape and murder of a young woman married to a quiet bank employee (Pablo Rago). Two workmen arrested by the police are beaten into a false confession, much to Benjamin’s disgust. Through obstinate persistence, he tracks down the real murderer to his family home and corners him in a breathtaking, swooping-camera chase through a football stadium that is one of the film’s highlights.

This, however, is just the beginning of a judicial nightmare, because the jailed assassin (played with icy intensity by Javier Godino) is soon recruited by Argentina’s secret police to carry out their dirty work. The film’s political commentary on the years of the dictatorship remains subtle, never foregrounded, but is a necessary presence in a film about the search for justice and the centrality of memory.

The excellent cast is led by the strongly centered Darin, who plays a double role: a man in the prime of life frustrated with his work and unable to capture personal happiness, and an older man looking back and analyzing what went wrong.

Villamil, the young star of “Same Love, Same Rain” (Darin is in that film as well), makes a wonderful love interest — she’s also fast-thinking, smart and courageous, though it takes her the whole film to break out of the social cage she has been trained to inhabit. Playing Benjamin’s deadbeat colleague, Francella adds just the right dose of bad jokes and barroom irony.

Campanella also edited the film, and his crisscrossing of time and mood is impressive. Less so is a long series of almost-over endings that are the film’s only real blemishes.

Venue: San Sebastian Film Festival Production companies: Tornasol Films, Haddock Films, 100 Bares Producciones, El Secreto de Sus Ojos Cast: Ricardo Darin, Soledad Villamil, Pablo Rago, Javier Godino, Guillermo Francella Director/editor: Juan Jose Campanella Screenwriters: Eduardo Sacheri, Juan Jose Campanella Producers: Gerardo Herrero, Mariela Besuievsky, Juan Jose Campanella Executive producers: Gerardo Herrero, Vanessa Ragone Director of photography: Felix Monti Production designer: Marcelo Pont Verges Music: Federico Jusid Costumes: Cecilia Monti Sales Agent: Latido Films No rating, 127 minutes

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Secret in Their Eyes (2015)

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Secret in Their Eyes Reviews

The remake, however watchable and solidly made it may be, doesn't explore its themes thoroughly.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 25, 2022

The most interesting case in Secret in Their Eyes isn't the murder case but the case the film makes for not remaking perfectly good Oscar winners.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Feb 3, 2021

Even the far superior (but still flawed) Argentine original leans too heavily on a clever twist ending.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 20, 2019

There are certainly good elements here, but they don't add up to an engaging whole.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Dec 7, 2018

Americanizing The Secret in Their Eyes is an idea that works better in theory than in practice.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 7, 2018

With confusing timelines and repetitive dialogue, the film misses the mark.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 22, 2018

For viewers who can tolerate the upsetting though realistic images, Secret deftly twists into something more insightful than a standard revenge thriller.

Full Review | Mar 6, 2018

The American remake of an Argentinean Oscar-winning film is less complex than the original, but still offers a gripping story.

Full Review | Jan 11, 2018

The set-up feels complex and contrived, the constant jumping back and forward in time is not always easy to follow, and the sexual chemistry between Ejiofor's character and Kidman's feels forced.

Full Review | Oct 24, 2017

Unwieldy as the story eventually turns out to be, it's engrossing as it goes along to a climax that you probably won't be expecting.

Full Review | Oct 10, 2017

What lends this film its power are the personal and political traumas that Argentina sustained during its "Dirty War."

Full Review | Sep 18, 2017

Its main problem is that it fails to generate suspense, excitement or the right mood despite its A-lister cast.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Mar 25, 2017

Just because a movie is downbeat or depressing doesn't make it deeper than movies with more style. Sometimes it makes a movie downright shallow.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 10, 2017

Its a fine story, but you already saw the better, tauter version half a decade ago.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 2, 2017

In this rendering, the story seems like little more than a made-for-TV kitchen-sink job about obsession... If there's a political message... it is hackneyed as well as crudely and artlessly delivered.

Full Review | Dec 9, 2016

All the glamour and intrigue of that original film is gone, and Secret in their Eyes proves that throwing movie stars at a story is not always the best way to tell it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 5, 2016

This remake was a welcome punch to the gut I couldn't help but be moderately impressed by

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 22, 2016

Sometimes a metaphor can be a prison too, shackling creativity to an under-considered thought.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 14, 2016

You just keep waiting for it to take flight, for some clue as to why these talented people are spinning their wheels with such subpar material.

Full Review | May 3, 2016

Judged on its own terms, it's a cut above routine - and the ending's reveal is heart-stopping - but those who enjoyed the original may find it comes up short.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 28, 2016

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‘Secret In Their Eyes’ Review: Oscar-Winning Stars Remake An Oscar-Winning Film – Is It Worth Another Visit?

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In 2010, Argentina’s Juan Jose Campanella won a much-deserved Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for  Secret in Their Eyes .  It didn’t take long for producer Mark Johnson to snap up the English-language remake rights. Writer-director Billy Ray was hired to take on the material and give it a new spin that would appeal to more of a mass audience without compromising the original, though it’s still a story about revenge.

As I say in my video review (click the link above), what Ray has nicely crafted is a smart genre film, a mystery thriller that lacks some of the grace of the Argentine version but more than makes up for it as a gripping, suspenseful, character-driven drama. Of course, casting doesn’t hurt — and Ray has collected a phenomenal group of stars to make up the key triangle his script revolves around. He also has condensed the time between the two distinct periods in which the film takes place. It was 25 years in the original, but this one jumps from 2002 to 2015. Ray specifically chose the period just following 9/11 for the events that set the action in motion, and 2015 for the continuation.

And what a cast. Julia Roberts , in a role originally written for a man, plays Jess Cobb, a sharp and dedicated DA investigator who is teamed — and tight as thieves — with FBI Investigator Ray Kasten (perfectly played by Chiwetel Ejiofor ). Along with another rising star, Deputy District Attorney Claire Sloan ( Nicole Kidman ), they are serving an anti-terrorism task force in Los Angeles. The relationship between the latter two is quite different as there is clearly something more than a professional regard for each other that comes through in both time periods.

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I will go no further in plot description except to say one major revelation is still the same as the original but packs a powerful punch even for those who think they know what’s coming. Director Ray manages to make it all fresh and compelling — no easy task since this genre of storytelling has been more at home on the small screen of late than in movies. Both Oscar-winning stars Roberts and Kidman are superb here. Kidman really gets it going in a riveting interrogation scene in which she all but verbally obliterates her suspect. However, both stars are really supporting the excellent Ejiofor, who drives the narrative in every way.

The fine supporting cast includes  Breaking Bad ‘s Dean Norris,  House Of Cards ‘ Michael Kelly, Alfred Molina and Joe Cole, the latter actually playing two roles. Cinematography by Danny Moder (Roberts’ husband) is breathtakingly good, giving Angelenos a view of their city that recalls the finest elements of film noir. A sequence set at Dodger Stadium is filmmaking at its best, especially a remarkable helicopter aerial descent into the ballpark. In addition to Johnson, Matt Jackson serves as producer. New distributor STX Entertainment opens  Secret in Their Eyes  today as its second release following the decent box office success of August opener The Gift , another midrange thriller.

Do you plan to see  Secret in Their Eyes?  Let us know what you think.

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A Family Affair Cast & Character Guide

Kevin costner's horizon box office opening eyeing no. 3 spot (but only a fraction of $100m budget), the john wick franchise has already appointed one of its keanu reeves replacements, secret in their eyes is a well-acted and politically-charged drama/thriller with ambitions that exceed its grasp..

In Secret in Their Eyes , the FBI agent Raymond "Ray" Caston (Chiwetel Ejiofor), investigator Jessica "Jess" Cobb (Julia Roberts), and deputy DA Claire Sloan (Nicole Kidman) are working for a Los Angeles based counter-terroism task force, one year after 9/11. However, everything changes when the squad finds a murder victim near an L.A. mosque they've kept under surveillance - and it turns out the victim is none other than Jess's daughter, Carolyn (Zoe Graham). A potential suspect is identified, but the purported killer - Mazin, nicknamed "Pac-Man" (Joe Cole) - ultimately walks due to a lack of evidence against him, only to vanish thereafter.

Thirteen years later, Ray - having resigned from his old job long ago - reunites with Jess and Claire, telling them he has finally identified a man who he is certain is the older Mazin, going under a different name. However, in order to bring Jess justice at last (and in the process, bring himself peace of mind), Ray must not only track down and find Mazin, but also seek out the evidence necessary to convict him for the heinous crime that he committed.

Secret in Their Eyes is an Americanized remake of the Oscar-winning 2009 Argentine film The Secret in Their Eyes - itself based on Eduardo Sacheri's novel "The Question in Their Eyes" - that looks at issues of morality and ethics in a post-9/11 U.S., similar to how its predecessor examines related issues in the aftermath of Argentina's Dirty Wars from the 1970s. Writer/director Billy Ray ( Shattered Glass , Breach ) thus aims to offer a larger political commentary here, through the lens of a more intimate story about three people who (in different ways) are left permanently damaged by a traumatic event. The resulting film has its strengths, yet  Secret in Their Eyes makes for an uneven viewing experience overall.

The first two-thirds of Ray's Secret in Their Eyes script jumps back and forth between the years 2002 and 2015; this makes for an effective approach to character development, by juxtaposing the older and younger versions of the film's leads. However, those positive effects are undone by a central narrative thread that hits the expected beats of the procedural genre in a formulaic manner, and a romantic subplot revolving around Ray and Claire that rings hollow, despite Ejiofor and Kidman's best efforts to sell the love story through their performances. The twists and turns in  Secret in Their Eyes ' third act are thus built on a flimsy foundation and come off more as gimmicky, rather than plot developments that pack a strong emotional punch (and enhance the film's over-arching themes at the same time).

Secret in Their Eyes  works best during the slow-burn dramatic scenes that are driven by tension, whereas its thriller sequences are competent, but otherwise underwhelming. Ray and cinematographer Daniel Moder ( The Normal Heart ) create a fitting Noir mood thoughout the film, portraying Los Angeles as a city that varies from welcoming to ominous - sometime that befits the story, accordingly. The film also succeeds at building up suspense though stylistic flourishes (the most noteworthy occasion being an aerial shot that sets up an action scene in a baseball stadium) - but once the action gets underway, Secret in Their Eyes  becomes conventional (read: uninteresting) in its execution.

Editor Jim Page ( Disturbia , No Good Deed ) is likewise most successful when cutting between the past and present in the film to create a sense of mystery and concern; when people are chasing down other people on foot, though, Secret in Their Eyes  feels more like a glorified Law & Order episode. It doesn't help that the film's supporting characters - Ray's semi-comical sidekick Bumpy Willis (Dean Norris), the morally-questionable and generally smarmy agent Reginald "Reg" Siefert (Michael Kelly), and the by-the-book district attorney Martin Morales (Alfred Molina) - all feel like players lifted right out of a crime procedural TV series, as those descriptions indicate. Secret in Their Eyes  is certainly elevated by having well-renowned character actors filling out its cast, but even they can only do so much to make their roles feel like more than two-dimensional archetypes.

Ejiofor and Roberts do the bulk of heavy-lifting in Secret in Their Eyes , delivering strong performances (ones deserving of a better movie) that require them to be vulnerable, relatable, and/or even unstable, when necessary. Kidman does fine work as the most in-control of the movie's three leads, though she and Ejifor don't have enough screen chemistry in their roles to make the romance between them fly. In fact, S ecret in Their Eyes tends to be much stronger when focusing on the friendship between Ray and Jess, as opposed to the Ray/Claire dynamic. Unfortunately, the film devotes nearly the same amount of time to exploring both of these relationships, to its detriment.

Secret in Their Eyes is a well-acted and politically-charged drama/thriller with ambitions that exceed its grasp, put simply. The film has a number of interesting elements, yet the individual parts don't add up to an equally compelling whole. Those in the mood for a decent adult dramatic thriller might want to check out Secret in Their Eyes at some point - but seeing as awards season releases are now storming into theaters, there are similar yet better options to choose from out there.

Secret in Their Eyes is now playing in U.S. theaters. It is 111 minutes long and is Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving disturbing violent content, language and some sexual references.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comment section!

Secret in Their Eyes

Secret In Their Eyes is a crime thriller directed by Billy Ray, featuring an ensemble cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, and Julia Roberts. The film revolves around a tight-knit team of investigators whose lives are shattered by a brutal murder. As the team seeks justice, they uncover complex relationships and confront old demons, culminating in an intense and challenging investigation. The narrative explores themes of obsession, retribution, and the quest for closure.

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Review: ‘Secret in Their Eyes,’ a 13-Year Hunt for a Killer

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By Stephen Holden

• Nov. 19, 2015

The biggest shock of “ Secret in Their Eyes ,” a sluggish, semi-coherent remake of the 2010 Argentine film that won an Oscar for best foreign picture, is the bedraggled appearance of Julia Roberts . The million-dollar smile is barely a flicker on a face drained of color and expression. Her character, Jess, an investigator for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, has the vitality of a clinically depressed zombie.

The story begins with the grisly discovery of the body of Jess’s daughter, Caroline, in 2002 during a post-Sept. 11 antiterrorism investigation. From there, the movie clumsily boomerangs back and forth between then and now. Thirteen years later, Jess is an ashen ghost of her former self. Ms. Roberts’s performance may be a stunt that the movie, written and directed by Billy Ray (“Captain Phillips”), exploits for all it is worth, but it’s still a brave one. It lends this sorry remake most of what little emotional resonance it stirs up.

The film’s churning energy center is Chiwetel Ejiofor. His stormy character, Ray, is a former F.B.I. agent who, 13 years after the murder, is willing to break any and all rules to crack the still-unsolved case. Mr. Ejiofor goes for broke in an extreme performance that depicts his character as an out-of-control, foaming-at-the-mouth vigilante.

Next to the showy antics of Ms. Roberts and Mr. Ejiofor, the movie’s third marquee name, Nicole Kidman, barely registers as Ray’s married former sweetheart, Claire, with whom he is still obsessed. The screenplay struggles to parallel Jess’s bottomless grief and bitterness with Ray’s still-simmering passion for Claire. But there is no chemistry between Mr. Ejiofor and Ms. Kidman, whose character remains chilly and remote. Her detachment makes Ray’s fixation seem slightly demented. At moments, he suggests the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on an oratorical bender.

The timing of the film’s release, days after the Paris terrorist attacks, is unfortunate. The references to Sept. 11 are superficial, confusing and crassly exploitative. Worse, they feel old hat and technologically behind the times. To stir up excitement, the movie devotes a lot of footage to the pursuit of a suspect in a baseball stadium. But a similar sequence in the original movie was much more visceral.

That chase comes as a relief after the yards of strained, flat-footed dialogue, which lacks the spontaneity of everyday speech. Sad to say: There is far more crackle in an average episode of “Law & Order.”

“Secret in Their Eyes” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). There is violence, some strong language and some sexual references. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes.

Movie review: ‘The Secret in Their Eyes’

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There’s something about a haunting mystery being solved by a haunted mind that’s particularly seductive. That’s just one of the many pleasures of “The Secret in Their Eyes,” whose string of knots challenges and charms in a way that make its win of the foreign-language Oscar this year perfectly understandable.

Argentine writer-director Juan José Campanella has given audiences a beautifully calibrated movie in the most traditional sense of the word — the ideal marriage of topic, talent and tone. It’s anchored by the unsolved murder of a young wife that won’t let former criminal investigator Ben Espósito (Ricardo Darín) rest easy even after 25 years.

In addition to being one of Argentina’s best-known filmmakers, Campanella has earned Emmys here, plus attention for directing episodes of “House,” “Law & Order Special Victims Unit” and “30 Rock.” He brought all that case-solving and comedy experience to bear in adapting the Eduardo Sacheri novel, interweaving the parallel worlds of the personal and the professional as his central character comes to realize that there is much more in his life to resolve than this single case.

The story begins in Buenos Aires in the ‘70s with the brutal rape and murder of the 23-year-old wife of Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago), an ordinary young man with an extraordinary love for his wife and the life they were beginning to build. All these years later, Espósito sets about turning the case into a novel in an effort to answer all that remains unanswered.

As the puzzle of the past unfolds in flashbacks, the present reconnects him with his own lost love, Irene (Soledad Villamil), who was his young boss on the case and is now a respected judge with a family; he is just older and alone. But the spark remains, and Campanella strings a tight wire of crackling dialogue between them packed with all the tension and tease of a couple dancing around the edges of a relationship.

The filmmaker is careful not to overuse their substantial chemistry, sprinkling it through the film like a hot spice as Espósito tries to figure out what clues he overlooked years ago. Another key player in this well-cast ensemble is Espósito’s partner Sandoval, a sometimes-brilliant investigator forever sidetracked by his love of booze, played with an amusing blend of ironic pathos by famed Argentine comic Guillermo Francella.

Campanella has been clever in using the blueprint of a cold-case procedural to explore a range of emotional themes from love and obsession to justice and retribution, all cast against a dark time of secret police and political intrigues in his native land. The action is moved along as much by patterns of human behavior as by events, and in doing so the filmmaker has given texture and depth to what could otherwise have become a more conventional thriller.

While Espósito sorts through his second thoughts and reconsiderations of decisions he and others made so long ago, director of photography Félix Monti and the production team work to both connect and separate the eras by keeping much of the focus on the faces and, of course, the eyes. When the camera pulls back to let more in, tension usually comes with it, as when Espósito spots the husband in a train station and learns that he spends his days moving from one station to another, hoping to spot the killer who’s never been caught.

Darín is captivating as Espósito, and despite the years etched on the actor’s face, he still brings his scenes as a much younger Espósito to life. He is the spine of the film, and it is the strength of the connection he builds with each character in turn — the lost love, the drunken partner, the destroyed husband, the killer — that ultimately makes the film a timepiece of precision and artistry. Like the murder at the heart of this tale, “Secret” is bound to linger in the memory for years.

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Secret in Their Eyes Review

Julia roberts and nicole kidman star in this thriller without thrills..

The only reason Secret in Their Eyes is able to hold one's attention for any amount of time is its jumping back and forth between 2002 and 2015. Very quickly however, it becomes apparent that the movie is a one trick pony, that the jumping is all it has going for it and, consequently, that turns it into the movie's single biggest flaw. Without the repeated jumps there is no film. The case is investigated badly and in such incredibly shallow fashion. The time jumps then are a magician's trick, a bit of misdirection, and they don't even work as that. Nicole Kidman may get a moment to shine, but it's a single scene and Julia Roberts is criminally underutilized – she gets one moment of dismay early and then Jess is dead inside for the rest of the time, an empty shell, just like the movie itself.

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The Secret in Their Eyes Is a Cop Movie That’s Uninterested In Cops, Crimes, and Criminals

As a crime flick, Billy Ray’s  The Secret in Their Eyes , a remake of Juan Jose Campanella’s Oscar-winning 2009 film of the same title, has little suspense, either of the whodunit or cat-and-mouse variety. Nor does it offset said lack of suspense the way some genre other genre films have done, by digging into the minutiae of police work. It’s a cop movie that’s largely uninterested in cops, crimes, or criminals. And yet, despite all that, the film is at times an effective, evocative mood piece. The funereal pall of sorrow that hangs over everything these characters do has a strange, surprising pull.

Much like the original, the film unfolds in two timelines. In 2002, while investigating a potentially radical Los Angeles mosque, FBI investigator Ray Kasten (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Deputy District Attorney Claire Sloan (Nicole Kidman), and DA investigator Jess Cobb (Julia Roberts) are called to a nearby murder scene. Unfortunately, the dead body turns out to be that of Jess’s teenage daughter, raped and killed in horrific fashion. After some poking around, Ray begins to focus on an odd young man named Marzin (Joe Cole), who had once attended one of their office parties and seems to have shown an interest in the young victim. As they pursue the leads, Ray and Claire get closer and closer to each other. But their case seems to hit a dead end when Marzin turns out to be an FBI informant in a major sting operation involving a potential terrorist sleeper cell. That story is anchored by the events of the present day, which sees Ray, now retired from the FBI, returning to L.A. and presenting to Claire and Jess new evidence that he’s been obsessively hunting all these years, and that may allow them to find Marzin and put him away for good.

As a procedural, the film is mostly useless, in part because we see relatively little of the investigation itself. Nor, save for one chase scene set at Dodgers Stadium, do we get any action theatrics to make up for it. (I try not to speculate about such matters, but some of the rushed, awkward editing choices give off a distinct sense of hasty recutting.) Instead, the film focuses on the silent, all-consuming nature of grief, guilt, and vengeance: It’s content to spend more time watching a mother mourn her dead daughter than on a shootout potentially involving the perpetrator himself. The whole story unfolds in an atmosphere of somber angst that renders even the flashback structure moot; both the present and the past are so grim and gray and quiet that they blend together, and it sometimes takes a little while before we figure out which timeline we’re in. That’s part of the idea, I think. The story is built around repetitions, with characters seemingly stuck in eternal loops; Ray, we’re told, has been methodically scouring image databases for 13 years, trying to find one man. This is personal for him, for reasons both stated and unstated.

In previous films like the excellent  Shattered Glass  and the intelligent-but-inert  Breach , writer-director Ray demonstrated a real feel for the rhythms of office politics. He brings some of that here as well. The film is so internal as to be almost claustrophobic; everybody is constantly bound by the walls of professional life and decorum. Save obviously for what’s happened to Jess and her daughter, families are only ever mentioned in passing, and Ray’s quiet longing for Claire feels limited by the fact that he can never quite know her beyond this heated work environment. The surprisingly intense chemistry between Ejiofor and Kidman enhances that. Their little glances and gentle moments of physical contact carry a real charge. We want to see them together.

The Secret in Their Eyes  can’t really hold a candle to Campanella’s original, a psychological thriller partly set during Argentina’s “Dirty War” of the mid-1970s. That political angle lent its tale of gnawing injustice an allegorical kick, which also helped sell the film’s one bizarre, last-minute twist. The remake doesn’t do away with the politics, but it does bury them a little deeper. The post-9/11 atmosphere, the investigation into the mosque, the suggestion that there’s a sleeper cell about to be uncovered — these are red herrings as far as the film’s  policier  narrative is concerned, but they do speak to the powerful hold that 9/11 still has on the American psyche. (Even if today, seen in the light of recent events in Paris, some may wonder if that hold should be even stronger.) This is an unsteady juggling act the film is managing here, with terrorism, sex crimes, police work, romantic obsession, guilt, and grief all in the mix. It doesn’t always work, but the tense, constant sense of unease persists long after the balls have been dropped and the film is over. That’s something.

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The Secret In Their Eyes Review

13 Aug 2010

129 minutes

Secret In Their Eyes, The

The Oscar for Best Foreign Language film is often controversial as heavy-hitters are shoved aside for odd, often political choices and heads get scratched all round. Last year, Germany’s The White Ribbon and France’s A Prophet seemed to be neck-and-neck for the top spot, but an unheralded Argentine thriller crept in and walked off with the statuette. Now, we get to see it, and cynicism about the voters of Beverly Hills evaporates because this is as enthralling a piece of cinema as the competition with the added bonus of having a heart. The Secret In Their Eyes feels like a world-class episode of Law & Order, set in a fascist state where bringing a culprit to justice isn’t easy and the government’s notions of right and wrong override petty concerns like who got raped and beaten to death.

It’s a profoundly human story, with a superb lead performace from Ricardo Darìn (the older con-man in Nine Queens) as a dogged yet hangdog investigating lawyer with a lifelong crush on his upper-class boss.

Written and directed by Juan José Campanella, from a novel by Eduardo Sacheri, this is a long, confident film. Its first act sets up a horrible crime, and shows how the hero’s sense of obligation to the victim’s husband (Pablo Rago) — as much for his ability to remain selflessly in love with the idealised dead woman as for any sense of duty — gets him in trouble when he refuses to prosecute two low-class workmen who have been battered into a confession.

A likely culprit is identified, loitering in the dead woman’s family photos, and the trail goes cold until a drunken colleague makes the vital deduction that a killer can change his name more easily than the football team he supports. This sets up a breathtaking, apparent single-take shot which outdoes Brian De Palma: a stadium is seen from above on match night, and the camera moves into the stands, among the throngs, throughout the concrete bowels and out onto the pitch — with the game still playing — as cops close in on the suspect.

The film seems to wrap up its story in mid-point, but there are stunning reversals, one of the scariest (but most understated) lift scenes ever shot, a telling ambiguity, more tragedies and two astonishing endings left...

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Soledad Villamil, Ricardo Darin, Carla Quevedo, Pablo Rago, Javier Godino, Guillermo Francella Juan Jose Campanella Rated R 127 Mins. Sony Classics Commentary with Director Juan Jose Campanella Behind the Scenes of The Secret in Their Eyes Casting The Secret in Their Eyes

• The Secret in Their Eyes received the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, to the surprise of many whom thought, perhaps, that the actual best foreign language film might win the award.
• The Secret in Their Eyes, definitely a good film, is by no means the best foreign language film from 2009. Period.

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Secret in Their Eyes review – flashback thriller remade with diminished returns

Julia Roberts out-acts and upstages Nicole Kidman and Chiwetel Ejiofor in this muddled film, making its central relationships look implausible and extraneous

A nd so, yet another great film gets a pointless and slightly wrong Hollywood remake, and this one tiptoes sheepishly into cinemas while everyone is looking the other way – preparing for the Academy Awards. It does, however, have the remake’s beneficial effect of enhancing the original’s prestige: after all, no self-respecting cinephile ever talks about George Sluizer’s cult chiller The Vanishing without first establishing his or her good taste by attacking the inferior English-language remake that Sluizer himself directed. This will now be the fate of Juan José Campanella’s terrific Argentinian drama-thriller El Secreto de Sus Ojos , or The Secret in Their Eyes. The foreign-language Oscar-winner from 2009 is now given a retrospective connoisseur’s boost by this unsatisfying remake, set in modern-day Los Angeles, with an all-star Hollywood cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts.

The first film starred that great character actor Ricardo Darin, who was already known for another cerebral crime-drama, Nine Queens , itself later given the inferior-remake treatment. He plays Esposito, a retired Buenos Aires prosecutor writing a crime novel based on an unsolved cold case from the early 1970s that continues to haunt him. Esposito visits his old colleague Irene (Soledad Villamil), who is now a senior official, ostensibly to ask for her help but really because he has always been deeply in unrequited love with her.

The action flashes back to the case and the days when Argentina’s sinister state assassinations and kidnappings (the ugly world of los desaparecidos ) provided camouflage for non-political murderers. We are also introduced to the third wheel in this thwarted judicial romance: Esposito’s hopeless-drunk colleague Sandoval (Guillermo Francella). The film fuses thrills with dark comedy, musing on fictional levels of reality and metaphysical strangeness: the idea that guilt can be seen in the perpetrator’s eyes.

The remake, adapted and directed by veteran Hollywood screenwriter Billy Ray, messes with and messes up the central romance and changes the triangular dynamic. Now it’s Ejiofor as retired prosecutor Ray, who comes back into the office and reveals himself to be obsessed with a cold case from years earlier, in the immediate post-9/11 era, and also eternally smitten with the classy senior DA official he fell for all those years ago, played with a waxy stateliness by Kidman – a frozen and unrelaxed performance that makes her moments of cleavage-flashing sexiness all the more odd.

But there is no novel-writing this time around, and the boozy best friend has gone. Now the third character is Ray’s other old colleague Jess, played by Roberts, who has a heartwrenching connection with the crime that haunts all three of them.

It is actually an interesting and even quite courageous performance from Roberts. She looks older and more careworn than I think she ever has before on screen. The problem is that her character never really meshes with the other two; she upstages and out-acts Kidman, and it might well have made more emotional sense if Ray’s hopeless crush was on her. A relationship between Ejiofor and Roberts might have generated more heat. But no. It’s with the glassy-eyed blonde regality of Nicole that Ejiofor’s character is enamoured. I concede that the point is that supposedly he was always overawed by her. But Kidman’s performance never unbends.

Politics is another issue. Campanella’s film found an intriguing noirish possibility in the world of the Argentinian junta: the idea that regular, common-or-garden murders couldthemselves be made to “disappear” in the murky gloom of state oppression. Ray’s version finds a potentially interesting twist on this theme. The junta tyranny of 70s Buenos Aires has been replaced with the homeland paranoia of 2002 America, and the conviction that LA was next on al-Qaida’s hitlist. An informer within a homegrown terrorist cell is therefore someone to be given the kid-gloves treatment. Could the authorities be suppressing investigation of an unrelated non-terrorist crime?

That’s a neat conspiracy-thriller idea. But our heroes’ opposition to homeland security isn’t so clearcut as the originals’ resentment of junta tyranny, and everything is blurred by the fact that Roberts’ character has become the emotional centre of the drama, making the Ejiofor-Kidman relationship look even more implausible and extraneous.

Nothing about this film will challenge Billy Wilder’s Some Like it Hot as the greatest remake in film history. But it might well lead people back to the excellent original.

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Secret in their eyes, common sense media reviewers.

Missed opportunities in flat, violent thriller.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Motivations that seem selfless can also be somewha

Characters work to serve justice, although not alw

Dead body shown; characters die. Brief images of a

Flirting between one character and another who&#39

One use of "f--k," plus "s--t,&quot

Schlitz poster seen. Twinkies mentioned.

Parents need to know that Secret in Their Eyes is a thriller about a very personal murder; it's a remake of the same-named 2010 Best Foreign Language Oscar winner, and both films were based on a novel by Eduardo Sacheri. There's violent imagery, including a dead body and some chasing, beating, and…

Positive Messages

Motivations that seem selfless can also be somewhat selfish.

Positive Role Models

Characters work to serve justice, although not always to the letter of the law. They're flawed and have many traits that aren't especially admirable.

Violence & Scariness

Dead body shown; characters die. Brief images of a violent struggle; a little blood. Chasing, punching (sometimes with brass knuckles), kicking. A man is hit with a shovel. Fire. Guns and shooting. A man breaks a leg. Dog biting, off-screen dog-kicking. Violent imagery in a comic book. Man held prisoner.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Flirting between one character and another who's married; a kiss on the cheek. A character shows his penis to both a man and a woman (nothing graphic seen). Some strong innuendo. Some imagery that objectifies women. A man accidentally rips a woman's blouse; some cleavage shown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

One use of "f--k," plus "s--t," "a--hole," "son of a bitch," "bitch," "ass," "moron," "d--k," and "hell," plus "Jesus" and "God" (as exclamations).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

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Parents need to know.

Parents need to know that Secret in Their Eyes is a thriller about a very personal murder; it's a remake of the same-named 2010 Best Foreign Language Oscar winner, and both films were based on a novel by Eduardo Sacheri. There's violent imagery, including a dead body and some chasing, beating, and intense fighting, with a little blood shown. Guns are used, and characters die. Characters flirt, and there's some strong sexual innuendo and imagery that objectifies women. Language includes one use of "f--k," plus "s--t," "bitch," and more. The film has some big stars -- including Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman -- but it's not very engaging, and younger teens probably won't be interested. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In the months after 9/11, Ray ( Chiwetel Ejiofor ) and Jess ( Julia Roberts ) are assigned "terrorist" duty, monitoring the comings and goings around a local mosque. One day, they discover Jess' daughter, murdered, her body left in a nearby Dumpster. But even with help from new district attorney Claire ( Nicole Kidman ), the prime suspect walks away, thanks to the complex politics of the time. Thirteen years later, Ray has spent all his free time combing mug shots and thinks he's finally found the killer. He enlists a few old friends, like agent "Bumpy" ( Dean Norris ), to track him down. But even now, there are some who don't want the murderer found.

Is It Any Good?

A remake of a 2009 Argentinian movie that won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, the American version has some fine performances and atmospheric touches, but it feels flat and by-the-numbers. The most important factors -- namely the tense, paranoid politics occurring after 9/11, as well as the intense personal agonies suffered by the three lead characters -- get only surface treatment from writer/director Billy Ray ( Shattered Glass , Breach ). A better movie might have tried some sly commentary, as well as burrowing more deeply into the characters.

Clearly, the movie is more focused on the murder story -- and on keeping the 2002 and 2015 timelines straight. All three of the leads, as well as supporters Norris and Alfred Molina , do a fine job with what they have, finding drama in the nooks and crannies of the investigation. But the whole thing feels more like a business decision, an attempt to revive some Oscar glory, than an attempt at good storytelling.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Secret in Their Eyes ' violence . What affect does it have? Which parts are thrilling, and which are shocking? How much is shown and not shown? Do different types of media violence have different impact?

What are the characters' sexual relationships like? Do characters overstep their bounds, or are they respectful? Who decides what the boundaries are? How is sex portrayed overall?

What does the movie have to say about life after 9/11? How were things done differently?

Jess makes a fateful decision at one point in the movie. Do you agree with what she did?

Movie Details

• In theaters : November 20, 2015
• On DVD or streaming : February 23, 2016
• Cast : Nicole Kidman , Chiwetel Ejiofor , Julia Roberts
• Director : Billy Ray
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : STX Entertainment
• Genre : Thriller
• Topics : Book Characters
• Run time : 111 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : thematic material involving disturbing violent content, language and some sexual references
• Last updated : May 14, 2024

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Secret in Their Eyes

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Not such a good idea remaking the 2009 Argentine thriller that won the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar. The Americanized version is miscast, misguided and misbegotten.

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Julia Roberts takes on the role played by a male actor the first time. She’s Jess Cobb, an FBI agent on the terrorist beat after the September 11th attacks, filling in for Argentina’s Dirty War. When she and her partner Ray Kasten (Chiwitel Ejiofor) find the body of a teenage girl in a dumpster behind a mosque, the dead girl is revealed as Jess’ daughter. The long arm of coincidence? Wait. You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Writer-director Billy Ray ( Shattered Glass, Breach ) jumps between past and present as Ray, retired to the private sector, returns to his Los Angeles FBI office in 2015, with evidence (he thinks) of the killer’s whereabouts. District attorney Claire Sloan ( Nicole Kidman ) wants to help, even if it means bending the rules for Ray, who she had a thing for back in the day. The movie keeps leaping across time without generating suspense or keeping its tenuous hold on reality. We know a lot has changed between 2002 and the present because Ejiofer’s beard gets grayer and Roberts grows increasingly haggard. Way before the climax, I stopped believing a word of the script. Kidman does too little and Roberts too much as the movie spins into a sea of clichés. 

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