Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Secret in Their Eyes (2015)

IMDb plot summary: A tight-knit team of rising investigators, along with their supervisor, is suddenly torn apart when they discover that one of their own teenage daughters has been brutally murdered.
Directed by Billy Ray. Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, and Julia Roberts.

Secret in Their Eyes is a mystery thriller told in two timelines. A government agent's daughter is brutally murdered, and we follow both the original time in which the murder occurred and was not solved, as well as a time jump 13 years later when one of the former agents thinks he's tracked the guy down again. In a lot of ways, this is a pretty typical crime story, but it sets itself apart a bit with some excellent acting performances. Julia Roberts in particular is excellent here as the mother of the murdered woman. She portrays the physical and spiritual toll her daughter's death takes on her, both in the immediate aftermath of the crime and over a decade later when she has been living with it for awhile. The ending is the best part, both satisfying and unsettling in a way that makes it feel more grounded in the humanity of the characters -- there's nothing that's going to undo the pain these characters have gone through, and hoping for that kind of happy ending will always disappoint.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Secret in Their Eyes > Pete's Dragon (1977)
Secret in Their Eyes < Anna Karenina
Secret in Their Eyes < The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Secret in Their Eyes < Winnie the Pooh (2011)
Secret in Their Eyes > Black Snake Moan
Secret in Their Eyes > Scrooge (1970
Secret in Their Eyes > Serenity
Secret in Their Eyes > Is It Fall Yet?
Secret in Their Eyes > Sleepers
Secret in Their Eyes > Irma La Douce
Secret in Their Eyes > The Sword in the Stone
Secret in Their Eyes > Treasure Planet
Final spot: #1729 out of 3950, or 56%. That definitely feels too low, so something's wonky there in my chart.

No comments: