The Secret in their Eyes [El secreto de sus ojos] (Campanella, 2009)

[kaytee]

I'm not a big fan of Argentinian movies but this one did catch my eye once it got nominated and later ended up beating Oscar favorites The White Ribbon and The Prophet. The reason it won the Oscar is because it is a compelling story about love, lust, law, crime, the works and stars mostly veteran actors who have a solid record in their film industry which I suppose the Academy likes.

The story is of a retired investigator wanting to write a book which takes him back reminiscing about his lost love and a case that he left half way. The story moves from present to past and continues this back and forth journey till we finally see what happened with the case he was trying to solve and him trying to muster up the courage to get his lost love back. The movie can be labelled as a love story or a crime story and the good part is that it doesn't lose its focus by emphasizing too much on one aspect.

Juan Jose Campanella is/was one of Argentina's well known directors who has not been relegated to directing Law and Order episodes. But clearly he has not forgotten his art especially when we see a couple of very well executed scenes. A long shot of a football (soccer) stadium pans in and ends up right behind the lead actor, it was pretty well done.

Both the lead actors and the supporting ones are excellent, engaging, believable who enhance the film.

Watch this not because it won an Oscar but because of the solid narrative and the brilliant acting.

[fizz]

Kaytee...good catch and nice recommendation. Will be watching this one soon.

[X.]

Well reviewed and gives me a solid reason to check it out at some point.