Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, The Secret in Their Eyes is a skillful blend of love story, police procedural crime thriller and legal drama that recalls the films of Pedro Almodóvar with its penchant for sweeping melodrama and emotive showstopper scenes.
The generous running time allows the film to explore the romance between District Attorney Irene (Soledad Villamil) and long-time criminal investigator Sandoval (Ricardo Darín). Neatly entwined around the story of their love affair is Sandoval’s obsession with the unsolved case of a murderer who has escaped justice through a mix of police corruption and mysterious disappearance.
A heady mélange of violence, baroque styling, sentimentality and melodrama this is crime thriller deeply in debt to the lush rhythms of Almodóvar and the tougher genre elements of contemporary South American cinema such as Nine Queens.
