Rating of
1.5/4
Some 'Secret's Should Be Buried
Unknown - wrote on 12/10/15
'Secret in Their Eyes' is not unlike a standard 'made for cable' mystery/thriller in it's presentation. There seems to have been a good narrative idea here. However, the focus isn't maintained in the right areas. Besides two really good scenes with Julia Roberts, all of the emotion and moral conflict brought up is not entirely addressed in a satisfactory manner. The direction would have us more interested in the procedural nature of your typical 'who-done-it?' instead. Those two main driving forces create a conflicting story progression that generates an off tone and causes substantial elements to feel hokey. The actors are our only source of any investment. The four main players are great, especially Ejiofor who is actually the main character. We follow this from his point-of-view only for the use of misdirect. The (double?) twist ending is a dull payoff that is not only made predictable by the faults of the film, but also loses grasp on it's originally interesting dramatic conceit.
