The Secret in Their Eyes (18)

Dir: Juan José Campanella, Argentina/Spain, 2009, 129 mins, subtitles

Cast: Ricardo Darín, Soledad Villamil, Pablo Rago, Javier Godino, Guillermo Francella

Review by Dave Hall

This film unexpectedly won Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, despite being up against heavyweight contenders like The White Ribbon and A Prophe t. In some ways it's not such a surprise, as it's the kind of slickly put together, story-heavy morality tale that Hollywood laps up, but although it's never less than absorbing it doesn't quite tip over into the extraordinary. Director Campanella's experience directing episodes of Law & Order , House and 30 Rock give it something of the feel of a high end TV movie.

The film opens in present day Buenos Aires, where retired court investigator Benjamin Espositio (Darín) is attempting a novel focusing on a case that has haunted him since 1974 - the brutal rape and murder of a young schoolteacher. Though the culprit, Isidoro Gomez (Godino, looking spookily like the young Polanski) was caught at the time, political manoueverings within the Argentinian judicial system saw him go free with Esposito powerless to intervene. Meanwhile, Espositio has befriended the victim's husband Ricardo Morales (Rago), and is continually trying to keep his drunkard colleague Sandoval (Francella) off the sauce.

Underlying all this is an unrequited love story between Esposito and the secretary of the court Irene Menéndez Hastings (Villamil). Although clearly in love with each other, neither will declare themselves openly, kept apart as they are by social status (he is working class, she middle class) and professional protocol. They are mesmerisingly well played by Darín and Villamil, but theirs are not the only eyes that hold secrets. Esposito deduces that Gomez is the guilty one from photographs showing him looking obsessively at the victim ( CSI this ain't), and in one of the film's standout scenes Hastings intuits that Gomez is guilty from his eyes and sets about interrogating him to get the truth.

Told straight, this would be a conventional romance cum thriller, but Campanella moves the action back and forth in time, so that we gradually find out what happened to all the main characters, as well as what took place at the time. The device of having Espositio write a novel about his experiences adds an extra tricksy layer of narrative - some scenes are presented as fact, but only afterwards do we realise they are speculation. By shifting the goalposts, Campanella seems to want the question the reliability of memories, but he never really digs deep enough beneath the surface. We are never led outside our comfort zone, or truly disorientated. The result is a glossy but slightly formulaic experience with a pay off that doesn't pack the punch it needs to

There are though some terrific scenes, including a bravura helicopter/crane shot at a football game, a brilliantly filmed chase at the stadium, and an unbearably tense scene in a lift. And the relationship between Esposito and Hastings is undeniably touching and believable, as is the comic interplay between Espositio and Sandoval. It's just a shame that Campanella's Hollywood-honed instinct for playing it safe and wrapping up loose end gets in the way of something more profound.

The “ayes” may have had it at Oscar time, but you may find there's a little less here than meets the eye.