MOVIE: THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES (EL SECRETO DE SUS OJOS)

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, The Secret In Their Eyes is a hypnotic study of obsession, truth and the pursuit of justice within, and outside of, a flawed judicial system. Hoping for catharsis, Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darín), a retired Buenos Aires criminal court investigator, decides to pen a novel based on his greatest personal and professional failure – a brutal rape and murder case still unresolved after 25 years. Alternating between past and present, the film observes Benjamin’s relationships with his alcoholic assistant (Guillermo Francella), the murder victim’s seemingly innocuous widower (Pablo Rago) and Irene (Soledad Villamil), a judge whom he secretly covets. Recalling David Fincher’s Zodiac, writer/director Juan José Campanella expertly utilises sympathetic characters, misdirection, speculation and a foreboding sense of uncertainty to create a film-noir that is (aside from a half-baked romantic subplot­) utterly captivating. The film’s bleak undercurrent, and its disturbing climactic revelation, may perturb the faint-of-heart … but even if Campanella has cinemagoers walking to the brink of a very dark abyss, his potent, thoughtful story will keep them firmly glued to their seats. (JH)