(USA, 110 min.)
Written and directed by Billy Ray
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts,
Dean Norris, Alfred Molina
 |
| Courtesy eOne Films |
Avert your eyes, Hollywood is at it again. Argentina’s Oscar
winner The Secret in Their Eyes gets
a ho-hum Hollywood remake in this by-the-numbers potboiler from writer/director
Billy Ray (who wrote Captain Phillips).
The original Secret in Their Eyes,
despite being an Oscar winner, has ample room for improvement, so one feels a
genuine disappointment that this remake fails to take the material to its full
potential. The remake doesn’t even have a doozy of a long take to inspire one
to leave the theatre raving, unlike hoe the original saved itself with five
minutes of breathtaking filmmaking.
The absence of the signature shot isn’t a major loss, but it
simply shows how much this take on Secret
in Their Eyes mails it in and struggles to justify its existence. Why
bother with a remake if it just reminds the audience that a good-but-not-great
original is the better option? There is no risk and no reward.
The story of the remake follows the same back and forth
pattern of the original film as Ray revisits a cold case in which the daughter
of his partner, Jess (Julia Roberts), was murdered and her killer never saw
justice. Ray works with the district attorney, Claire (Nicole Kidman), who whom
he’s had the hots since meeting her thirteen years earlier, just around the
time that Jess’s daughter died and they collectively landed the worst case of
their lives. The film sets the cold case in post-9/11 LA and puts Ray and Jess
on a counterterrorism task force, and the setting actually hinders much of the
film’s credibility as Ray’s commitment to the case jumps across departments and
bureaus, and generates conflicts of interest and implausible oversights galore.
The remake, to its credit, has more coherence than the original film does as it
cuts back and forth between past and present. (Some different haircuts,
including a comb-over on the usually-bald Norris, help to signal the time
change.) The remake is more coherent, but it doesn’t have any fire.
Ray plays the drama as conventionally and even-handed as
possible, so Secret in Their Eyes rarely musters a jolt, or shiver of
tension. As a thriller, it doesn’t thrill, and there isn’t much punch or
catharsis as the crosscut narrative twists the pieces of the story until the
fall together. Even the chemistry between Ejiofor and Kidman is surprisingly
cool. (The drab lighting doesn’t do much for mood or atmosphere, either.) The telenovela vibe between Ricardo Darín
and Soledad Villamil in the original film leaves something to be desired, but
the flatness of direction keeps the romance stuffy and bureaucratic in the
remake. The remake misses the tight close-ups and double-tells of the actors’
eyes that bring the true emotions of the film to life.
The one notable improvement is the choice to make the
victim’s relative a cop on the case and to cast Julia Roberts as said grieving
mother. Roberts is very strong in a dowdy and restless performance that rings
of grief, anger, and pain. The brooding fury of her work in August: Osage County continues in this
dark and simmering performance. Secret in
Their Eyes comes to life when Roberts is on screen as Jess’s bitter hunger
rages through the signs of fatigue and strain that weigh her down. Her eyes,
and the creases and black circles that surround them, are the film’s weapon.
Rating: ★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Secret in Their Eyes is
now playing in wide release.
