Secret in Their Eyes
11/03/16 Filed in: Cinema
This was our film choice this Wednesday. A competent enough crime drama with an impressive cast, so I was surprised to read some fairly downbeat reviews. It seems that the film is a remake of an Oscar-winning Argentine thriller from 2009 and the general consensus is that the original was far better. Having not seen it I can't offer an opinion.
The film is set 13 years after the murder of the daughter of a district attorney investigator, Jess, who is played by Julia Roberts, in a rather un-glam part. Ray, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, was as an FBI counter-terrorism investigator at the time, and a good friend of Jess, and has returned to the office because he thinks he has tracked down the murderer. He is there to convince Claire, another co-investigator at the time of the murder, to re-open the case, Claire now being the assistant district attorney.
The film is set 13 years after the murder of the daughter of a district attorney investigator, Jess, who is played by Julia Roberts, in a rather un-glam part. Ray, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, was as an FBI counter-terrorism investigator at the time, and a good friend of Jess, and has returned to the office because he thinks he has tracked down the murderer. He is there to convince Claire, another co-investigator at the time of the murder, to re-open the case, Claire now being the assistant district attorney.
The film goes back to show the events following the murder, where we see that because the suspect was an informer providing counter-terrorism information, there was a concerted attempt to prevent his indictment for the murder of Jess's daughter. This resulted in the suspect effectively walking free. Ray, who feels a degree of responsibility for what happened to Jess's daughter, because he had failed to turn up at an arranged meeting with her to buy a birthday cake for Jess, subsequently left the investigators' office. He has returned 13 years later to track down the man who eluded them.
Jess herself doesn't seem to want the investigation reopened and when a police officer is killed trying to apprehend the suspect, who it transpired wasn't the person they thought he was, she says enough is enough. She invites Ray and Claire to visit her in her remote farmhouse and explains exactly why she doesn't want the investigation to carry on. What she has to say shocks both of them, but there's an even greater shock to come.
Jess herself doesn't seem to want the investigation reopened and when a police officer is killed trying to apprehend the suspect, who it transpired wasn't the person they thought he was, she says enough is enough. She invites Ray and Claire to visit her in her remote farmhouse and explains exactly why she doesn't want the investigation to carry on. What she has to say shocks both of them, but there's an even greater shock to come.