Adam reviews THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES, the Oscar winner on limited U.K. release

By Adam Whyte / August 13, 2010

rating: 4.5

Like Zodiac or Memories of Murder, here is an investigative crime movie in which the crime itself, and the criminal, are really secondary to the effects these have on those doing the investigating. It crosses years, with central characters who care about the case long after the officials have given up. The Secret In The Eyes adds the frustration that those in charge may give up for dubious reasons: aside from the elusiveness of the convict the protagonist is constantly being held back by the political turmoil and corruption surrounding them. His name is Esposito and though he has long since retired he is drawn, at the beginning of the picture, back 20 years to write about an unsolved case he was investigating involving the rape and murder of a young woman. He is writing a novel inspired by the case, although we can see in his eyes the ghosts of regret and longing. These feelings are connected to Irene, his immediate superior. This may sound like a perfunctory romance, but it is in fact poignant and touching; it is possible we remember a romance where two characters never kiss for longer than even the steamiest of movie love scenes. The bulk of the story is told in flashback, as Esposito and his partner Pablo drift increasingly apart from the official line on the case, and find themselves independently trying to catch someone that the authorities seem to act as if they€™d prefer were never caught. Their relationship provides the movie with its only real thread of humour, as Pablo is a fairly unreliable drunk, and yet also the only person Esposito really trusts. This isn€™t groundbreaking stuff but it is made so efficiently and performed so well that I was completely drawn in. Police procedurals require a level of attention and involvement and if they don€™t work they can be very sterile. Here the opposite is true; we really get the sense of aspirations towards justice within an unjust system. It€™s not €˜la justicia€™ says Irene, but it is €˜una justicia.€™ Technically the movie is well made with one completely knock-out sequence. It is a helicopter shot that becomes, seemingly without a cut, a handheld close-up of a face in a football crowd, and then just keeps going way past the point you expect a cut. For sheer technical bravado this outdoes the famous Steadicam shot from Goodfellas. For excitement it develops into a chase that equals the Bourne movies. Watching this sequence €“ which involves more than one shot but is edited so seamlessly that I only know this from trusting my brain over my eyes €“ I wondered why, in this day and age, an entire movie could not be made this way. Choppy editing requires considerably less work, but a sense is created here of verisimilitude and momentum. The sequence is breathtaking. Ricardo Darin is perfectly cast as Esposito; his performance, and his face, occasionally betrays deep feelings of remorse but the charm, if such a word can fit a movie which contains real tragedies and horrors, of his performance is in the way these qualities are subdued and repressed. As Isidoro Gómez, the main suspect, Javier Godino is brilliantly menacing. Just as in the eyes of Esposito we may pick up sadness and loss, in Gómez€™s we see deep insecurity and aggression, or insecurity masked in aggression. The Secret In Their Eyes was a surprise winner of the 2010 Best Foriegn Language Oscar. It may be that it€™s simply more accessible than Michael Haneke€™sThe White Ribbon, a favourite for the award, though this is not a criticism. It is a love story that thrills and unsettles us, and a crime drama that touches us, with time for an optimistic, if quietly jaded, look at the mysteries of the human heart.