The Secret in Their Eyes is a satisfying crime drama with performances that make its frustrated romance matter. The middle wanders and the music sometimes insists too hard, but the people hold our attention.
Juan José Campanella’s The Secret in Their Eyes is a good crime drama that gives its unrequited romance enough attention to make both stories matter. The murder inquiry moves between past and present, alongside memories that its characters cannot comfortably put away. Campanella and co-writer Eduardo Sacheri give the investigation room for comedy, grief and political unease. They occasionally ask the plot to carry too much. Still, the people involved remain worth following when the route becomes unnecessarily complicated.
Ricardo Darín plays Benjamín Espósito with a reserve that could easily have made him dull. Instead, the performance suggests the effort involved in keeping an expression under control, especially when feelings threaten to become obvious. Soledad Villamil’s Irene Menéndez Hastings is a strong presence beside him, and their chemistry gives the frustrated love story a reason to occupy so much of the film. We believe in the attraction without needing it announced at every opportunity. The restraint also allows the humour to arrive without making either character seem foolish.
The Argentine setting matters because the search for justice takes place against a history of dictatorship and political violence. The screenplay connects that public history to private lives without requiring every exchange to become a lesson. There is something troubling in how readily a familiar procedural can accommodate such a setting. Institutions that a crime drama might ordinarily ask us to trust cannot simply be taken on their word here. That uncertainty gives the investigation some of its bite.
Cinematographer Félix “Chango” Monti’s football-stadium chase is the conspicuous technical attraction. The continuous shot makes the size of the place a source of suspense, allowing the pursuit to develop without the usual relief of a cut. We were tense watching it, because finding one person in that crowd looks difficult enough before anyone has to catch him. The sequence earns its place as a thriller set piece, though it is also the point at which the film seems most keen to impress. The quieter scenes survive the comparison because the cast remains so watchable.
Campanella also edits, and the shifts in time are generally easier to follow than the changes in tone. The comedy helps these people feel companionable, but the move back towards violence can be abrupt. In the middle, the leisurely pace begins to feel like reluctance to leave material behind, and some of Campanella and Sacheri’s complications are more dutiful than surprising. The film runs 130 minutes; it has enough human interest to justify a substantial length, though not every detour earns its keep. A firmer cut would have helped.
The music by Federico Jusid and Emilio Kauderer is less persuasive when it presses the romance towards melodrama. Darín and Villamil have already supplied the feeling, and the score can make their work seem less delicate than it is. Campanella’s fondness for embellishment extends beyond the soundtrack, particularly when the storytelling becomes emphatic. This does not undo the performances. It does occasionally make us wish he would leave a moment alone and let the actors finish it.
As a mystery, it belongs to the familiar tradition of an investigation becoming personal, and we need not mistake that familiarity for a fault. It asks us to spend time with people whose hesitation matters as much as their ability to solve a case. The performances make that a fair request. We recommend it for an evening when the conversations are as much of a draw as the chase, with some patience reserved for the middle.
