Ricardo Darín can hold an expression still and make us notice the effort. We value his quiet humour and warmth, though his likability can make even his less sympathetic characters too easy to forgive.
Fi1m perspective
Ricardo Darín makes keeping a face still look like work. As Benjamín Espósito in The Secret in Their Eyes (2009), he suggests the effort of controlling an expression when feelings threaten to become obvious. The reserve could have made him dull; instead, we find ourselves watching for what he cannot quite suppress. He lets the humour through without making the character foolish, and never asks us to congratulate him on his restraint.
His move from television soaps and comedies to film gathered notice in the 1990s, with Nine Queens (2000) providing the major breakthrough. As the con artist Marcos, he makes an untrustworthy man someone we are inclined to follow. There is a reservation here: his natural likability can make an unsympathetic character too easy to forgive. The family concerns of Son of the Bride (2001) and ensemble work of Wild Tales (2014) offer other settings for that approachable presence.
In The Secret in Their Eyes, frequent collaborator Juan José Campanella gives him a strong partner in Soledad Villamil’s Irene Menéndez Hastings. Their chemistry makes the film’s frustrated romance worth the time it takes away from the crime story. We were moved by the attraction they allow us to see without repeatedly announcing it. Darín’s silences and glances are particularly useful beside an actor who can hold her own: he need not supply every feeling in the scene.
The middle of The Secret in Their Eyes wanders, and Campanella does not always know when to leave a moment alone. Federico Jusid and Emilio Kauderer’s music presses the romance towards melodrama when Darín and Villamil have already made us feel it. We sometimes wish the score would quieten down and let them finish. For a first encounter, choose this if a patient crime drama appeals, and be prepared to forgive a little unnecessary emphasis.
Biography
Ricardo Darín is an Argentine actor. Born on 16 January 1957 in Buenos Aires, he began his career as a child actor in theatre alongside his parents and later appeared in numerous television series and soap operas, gaining popularity as a young leading man.
Darín became a prominent film actor with roles including Marcos in Nine Queens (2000), Rafael Belvedere in Son of the Bride (2001), Benjamín Espósito in The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) and Simón Fisher in the 'Bombita' segment of Wild Tales (2014). He has also appeared in Everybody Knows (2018) and Argentina, 1985 (2022).
