"Justice... I owe my
daughter that.”
Oh Julia... They made you look like Glenn Close.
A team of rising
investigators, along with their supervisor, is suddenly torn apart when they
discover that one of their own teenage daughters has been murdered.
A remake of the 2009 Spanish film 'El Secreto De Sus Ojos', this film starts out as a heavy handed, non-subtle, predictable
Hollywood thriller finishes as a heavy handed, non-subtle, predictable
Hollywood thriller.
For having a pretty solid cast of veteran acting talent including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and Dean Norris, not even the "all-star" cast could make this film work.
The film starts off on a slightly unbalanced foot as we find ourselves jumping between two different timelines, which is no bad thing, but when it's full of exposition and stating the obvious for the audience then it becomes tiresome pretty quickly. "Oh I've not seen you in 10 years, I heard you had 3 promotions, you never married?" Blah Blah Blah...
Subtly is never normally in the vocabulary of most Hollywood remakes, prequels and franchises and 'Secret in their Eyes' is no exception. Shoddy and lumbering dialogue slows every scene and makes for some cringe-worthy moments. Pieces of the puzzle are dropped like lead balloons in the attempt to mystify you when the big finale emerges. In the end it's as surprising as Cliff Richard being accused of being a paedophile, it was bound to happen in the end.
Probably the best part of this movie was Chiwetel Ejiofor. He's a great actor with some difficult scenes and he manages to make it work for the most part. There are a few moments in the film that make you pay attention and perks up what is a relatively straight forward mystery. However, the concept and puzzle that the film presents could have been a homage to the great murder mysteries of cinema, with intricate layers of plot and suspect characters, but all that is sacrificed for a benign love story between Ejiofor and the ever-whispering Nicole Kidman.
Julia Roberts is pretty quiet in the film and, despite the age defying quality she actually has, she has a lot of make up on to make her look haggard and old. Her character could have been a lot more interesting than she was but, unfortunately, she's simply functional enough to get the job done.
Dean Norris plays Hank from 'Breaking Bad', complete with a limp, and we love him for it. "They're minerals Marie!".
The revelation that one of their own has been murdered is a tough scene for any actor to reign in but, despite this, it actually turns out to be one of the better scenes in the film.
Having not seen the original film it's hard for me to judge this remake against the original but I can take an educated guess that the original is a whole lot better than this. The ideas and concepts of the film were there, they are deep and full of mystery and probably a lot better written in the original. Hollywood dumbs down movies for the masses and thrillers often tend to suffer the most. Especially foreign language adaptations. The nuances in the story are lost to dreadful exposition and characters become two dimensional plot devices. When the source material is obviously good enough to make you want to remake it in English, you better well keep the essence of the film alive, otherwise it loses all of what made it so successful in the first place.
The big twist finale isn't as shocking as it claims itself to be. It's no surprise when it comes because of the clumsy foreshadowing that flags up the fact that a plot twist is probably going to happen. It becomes a matter of counting down until it comes rather than being flabbergasted when it takes you by surprise. What is even more frustrating is the fact that it does have some good moments and it does explore some intriguing ideas but it doesn't do it well enough and doesn't go deep enough to make it worthwhile.
It isn't the worst of these types of films that I've seen. It's reasonably entertaining and will keep your attention for most of the film. Will I ever watch it again? No but I don't regret watching it by any means.
Overall, are the secrets in their eyes? I think the secrets are in the bad writing and mediocre delivery. 'Secret in their Eyes' is a bog-standard, run of the mill, by the numbers thriller that Hollywood has churned out to make a few quick bucks. The ideas and themes that they dilute are actually really interesting and challenging but are lost in the finished article.
There are glimmers of hope in the film that give us a taste of how good it could have been but, ultimately, your time is better spent digging out the original. That's what I'm going to do!
Despite this, Julia, I still believe in you.
For having a pretty solid cast of veteran acting talent including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and Dean Norris, not even the "all-star" cast could make this film work.
The film starts off on a slightly unbalanced foot as we find ourselves jumping between two different timelines, which is no bad thing, but when it's full of exposition and stating the obvious for the audience then it becomes tiresome pretty quickly. "Oh I've not seen you in 10 years, I heard you had 3 promotions, you never married?" Blah Blah Blah...
Subtly is never normally in the vocabulary of most Hollywood remakes, prequels and franchises and 'Secret in their Eyes' is no exception. Shoddy and lumbering dialogue slows every scene and makes for some cringe-worthy moments. Pieces of the puzzle are dropped like lead balloons in the attempt to mystify you when the big finale emerges. In the end it's as surprising as Cliff Richard being accused of being a paedophile, it was bound to happen in the end.
Probably the best part of this movie was Chiwetel Ejiofor. He's a great actor with some difficult scenes and he manages to make it work for the most part. There are a few moments in the film that make you pay attention and perks up what is a relatively straight forward mystery. However, the concept and puzzle that the film presents could have been a homage to the great murder mysteries of cinema, with intricate layers of plot and suspect characters, but all that is sacrificed for a benign love story between Ejiofor and the ever-whispering Nicole Kidman.
Julia Roberts is pretty quiet in the film and, despite the age defying quality she actually has, she has a lot of make up on to make her look haggard and old. Her character could have been a lot more interesting than she was but, unfortunately, she's simply functional enough to get the job done.
Dean Norris plays Hank from 'Breaking Bad', complete with a limp, and we love him for it. "They're minerals Marie!".
The revelation that one of their own has been murdered is a tough scene for any actor to reign in but, despite this, it actually turns out to be one of the better scenes in the film.
Having not seen the original film it's hard for me to judge this remake against the original but I can take an educated guess that the original is a whole lot better than this. The ideas and concepts of the film were there, they are deep and full of mystery and probably a lot better written in the original. Hollywood dumbs down movies for the masses and thrillers often tend to suffer the most. Especially foreign language adaptations. The nuances in the story are lost to dreadful exposition and characters become two dimensional plot devices. When the source material is obviously good enough to make you want to remake it in English, you better well keep the essence of the film alive, otherwise it loses all of what made it so successful in the first place.
The big twist finale isn't as shocking as it claims itself to be. It's no surprise when it comes because of the clumsy foreshadowing that flags up the fact that a plot twist is probably going to happen. It becomes a matter of counting down until it comes rather than being flabbergasted when it takes you by surprise. What is even more frustrating is the fact that it does have some good moments and it does explore some intriguing ideas but it doesn't do it well enough and doesn't go deep enough to make it worthwhile.
It isn't the worst of these types of films that I've seen. It's reasonably entertaining and will keep your attention for most of the film. Will I ever watch it again? No but I don't regret watching it by any means.
Overall, are the secrets in their eyes? I think the secrets are in the bad writing and mediocre delivery. 'Secret in their Eyes' is a bog-standard, run of the mill, by the numbers thriller that Hollywood has churned out to make a few quick bucks. The ideas and themes that they dilute are actually really interesting and challenging but are lost in the finished article.
There are glimmers of hope in the film that give us a taste of how good it could have been but, ultimately, your time is better spent digging out the original. That's what I'm going to do!
Despite this, Julia, I still believe in you.
No comments:
Post a Comment