Great Films You Might Have Missed on Netflix Instant: #2 The Secret in their Eyes (El Secreto de sus ojos)

Argentine director Juan José Campanella’s The Secret in their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) had a limited release in the United States this year.  I wanted to see it in the theater, but I never got the chance.  I was happy to find it was available on Netflix Instant.  I am happy to add it to my list of gems available for streaming via Netflix.  This is a great film.  I am a lover of mysteries and crime stories, but while this was a story of an investigation, as all good detective stories do, it transcended the genre.

Set in Buenos Aires partly in the 1970’s and partly in the modern day, The Secret in their Eyes is the story of Benjamín Esposito (Ricardo Darín), a retired investigator for the criminal court, who is attempting to write a novel about one of his old cases in an attempt to gain closure for himself in regards to the case as well as in regards to his unexpressed feelings for his superior in social class as well as in the judicial hierarchy, the straight-laced Irene Menéndez Hastings (Soledad Villamil).  As he attempts to piece together the past, Benjamin brings his novel to Irene, now a judge in the courts, not only to seek her opinion on his work, but to probe the waters. 

The case that he could never forget was the investigation of the rape and murder of a young newly-wed school teacher, Liliana Coloto (Carla Quevedo).  As Benjamin begins to investigate the case, he is struck most by the deep love demonstrated by her grieving husband, Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago).  Spurred by Ricardo’s determination to find his wife’s killer, Benjamin digs deeper in the case finding new leads and what he suspects to negligence on the part of his colleagues.  Benjamin’s efforts to give Ricardo his simple justice is set against a backdrop of corruption in Peronist Argentina.

Beautifully shot with simple and honest framing,  the film is a joy to watch.  Argentinian Spanish is a very expressive and beautiful language, so even if you don’t like subtitles you should make an exception.  The acting was excellent as well, so despite the fact that minor subtleties of language or word play might be missed,  I really did not feel that I lost a great deal by having to read subtitles and not understanding the language.

I must confess that my idea of Argentina in the 1970’s was some nebulous combination of the Wild West and a police state.  I never imagined there would be courts and murders would be investigated, and people would dare to have dreams and ambitions.  I never imagined it would seem so “normal.”  It could have been New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, any number of U.S. cities with a history of corruption and violence in the 1970’s.  It is a universal story with universal themes: love and justice.  If a man can but gain one of these two things in life, it is possible that his soul can be at peace.

Previous Posts in Great Films You Might Have Missed on Netflix Instant:
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