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Nicole Kidman adds her considerable star power to Secret in Their Eyes
C+The phrase, “It loses something in the translation,” seems to apply with distressing frequency to American remakes of acclaimed foreign films. The latest example of this phenomenon is Secret in Their Eyes, a remake of the highly acclaimed 2009 Best Foreign Film Oscar winner from Argentina. Despite the presence of high-octane stars Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts, as well as Chiwetel Ejiofor, in the cast, the new film never rises above the level of a routine thriller.
Secret in Their Eyes follows two investigations into the same crime occurring 13 years apart. In 2002, the teenage daughter of FBI agent Jess Cobb (Roberts) is brutally raped and murdered. Fellow FBI agent Ray Karsten (Ejiofor) soon arrests a suspect, but Assistant DA Claire Sloan (Kidman) has to release him because the man is working as an informant against possible post-9/11 terrorists. The suspect soon disappears, but years later, Karsten, now a private investigator, thinks that he has located the killer and seeks Claire’s help in making an arrest.
In the original version of Secret in Their Eyes, the victim was a married woman whose husband ‘s grief led the police detective to pursue the investigation of what had become a cold case. The detective empathized with the widower because of his own unrequited love for the prosecuting attorney. Ironically, replacing a relatively minor character in the original with Julia Roberts, who is an integral part of the task force, harms the entire dynamic of the film. Director Billy Ray beefs up Roberts’ role by providing flashback scenes of happier times with Jess and her daughter to explain Ray’s continued pursuit of the case for a decade, thus reducing Claire’s character to mere eye candy. The result is a routine procedural, replete with shootouts and chases, and not all that credible a one. The national security rationale for dropping the case given by the district attorney (Alfred Molina) never rings true with Jess sitting in the next room grieving about her lost daughter. Kidman still has the most effective moment in Secret in Their Eyes, an interrogation scene in which she uses her sex appeal to elicit an incriminating reaction by the suspect. Beyond that, the movie feels oddly drained of passion until the shock ending that, while still powerful, is far more muddled than in the original. There’s simply too little secret left in Secret in Their Eyes.
Continue reading on Secret in Their Eyes: Mini-review
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