My Writings
Featured Review - El Secreto de Sos Ojos
The 2009 Oscar winner for the best foreign film has become the second highest grossing movie in Argentine history and is a sumptuous and powerful piece of movie-making. Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darin) is a recently retired criminal court investigator with two unrequited passions: his love for his boss, the high powered criminal lawyer Irene Hastings (Villamil), and the major case of his career - the rape and murder of the young and recently married Liliana Morales.
The case lingers on in the memory of those involved, and provides the backdrop against a series of relationships in the Judge’s court - some tender, some volatile, and some acrimonious. Esposito is unable to shake the effect the murder has had on the bereaved husband Ricardo, which leads him to join forces with colleague Pablo Sandoval as we follow their attempts to nail the killer and bring him to justice.
The film is directed by Juan Jose Campanella, and Eduardobased on Eduardo
Sacheri's novel La Pregunta de Sus Ojos (The Question in
Their Eyes). It enjoys excellent characterisation
and splendid acting performances and is nicely paced throughout. Of
especial
interest is
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(cont)... the relationship between Hastings and Esposito. From different sides of the tracks, yet clearly mutually attracted, Esposito lacks the courage of his convictions and is content to spend time paying lip service to his passion for her. An excellent acting performance from Darin.
Despite a splendid scene at the railway station, he fails to convince himself that expressing his true feelings for her would be anything other than a betrayal of trust. Esposito remains incomplete. His life becomes largely empty due to cause and effect, which is one of the key themes in the movie. Meanwhile the killer is still at large.
Exposito's colleague Sandoval (Pablo Rago) may be a drunk but he makes the synaptic leap that breaks the case. Again it is all about passion, and a fantastic scene at a floodlit soccer game at Racing Club is our reward too. The film switches time lines throughout, and we follow this according to how grey Esposito’s beard is, so this film does require concentration.
If you feel like trying, it is not too difficult to guess the denouement (when Esposito decides to re-visit Morales at an out of the way retreat), but as the strands of the plot come together and are clarified, so the relationship between the characters is clarified too, and we have a fitting finale. On the face of it this is a murder mystery, but further exploration reveals a path to the frailty and savagery of the human heart.
My Rating : 10/10 Deeply Involving
Review written by John Franklin : October 2010
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