
Secret In Their Eyes is a remake of the 2009 foreign film, El secreto de sus ojos, which translates to Secret In Their Eyes.... obviously. The film intercuts between two timelines, both revolving around an investigator named Ray (Chiwetel Ejiofor). The first takes place thirteen years ago and finds Ray attempting to hunt down the guy responsible for sexually harassing and murdering Carolyn (Zoe Graham), the daughter of fellow investigator, Jess (Julia Roberts). The second story takes place in the modern day and, again, revolves around Ray. He's been investigating the case for 13 years, looking at the faces of every caucasian male he can find, and he thinks, after all these years, that he may just have found the murderer after all.
Unlike its promotional material, it's a film very light on action. It's a dialogue-filled slop, dragging its feet ever-so-slowly behind. It's a film that thinks it's one step ahead of you, when in actual fact you're four steps in front. All of the twists in this movie? Yeah, I saw them all coming. Nothing comes as that big of a surprise, making the build up to these twists just twice as uninteresting. In terms of plot, nothing exciting ever happens. The mystery is generic and the characters are two dimensional, the only exception being Julia Roberts, but even then, her character does things in this movie that felt very out of place.
Another notable addition to the cast is Nicole Kidman, and she just looks bored. Again, it's not her worst, but it's not great. Her character is generic, never getting a lot to do, and the result of that is a performance that doesn't live up to her acting capabilities. She's so much better than this. There was no need for her to do a film as formulaic and lifeless as this one, but that's the thing. This is just a lifeless movie. The direction is stale, everything looking so drab and brown. There's no energy. It just drains the life out of you, and not in a good way.
To sum up, Secret In Their Eyes brings together a lot of talent for a film that wastes every single one of them. It's dull, lifeless and generic, the characters two dimensional and the plot predictable. It's an uninteresting film that lacks its much needed emotional connection.