I can pinpoint the moment about halfway through El secreto de sus ojos where it got me. In the scene, federal agent (for the courts? I don’t really get the Argentine legal system) Benjamin Espósito (Ricardo Darín) launches into a heartfelt entreaty to his boss, Irene Menéndez-Hastings (Soledad Villamil), about a week after her engagement to reopen a case that she misinterprets as a confession of his feelings for her. You might be able to guess that the real strength of a scene in a movie whose title translates as “The Secret In Their Eyes” has to do entirely with the degree of emotions expressed through these actors eyes. You’d be right. The range of feelings that Soledad Villamil manages to capture, hope, love, and excitement that gives way to disappointment, self-doubt, embarrassment, and anger, is astounding. She does so much with something we all take for granted that I now hold actors to a higher standard of expression.
El secreto de sus ojos is a crime drama and it’s a difficult one to watch at times. Very few movies dare to show rape when it’s a plot point. This one doesn’t show the whole thing, but it was violent and disturbing enough for me in a way that lingered for a day or two after. Excuse a very minor spoiler, but the ending is also similarly disturbing in an entirely different way, not to mention the tense drama that surrounds the political climate of 1970s Argentina.
Find this movie and watch it. You won’t be disappointed.
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