STX EntertainmentA 2009 Spanish-Argentinean co-production directed by Juan Jose Campanella, The Secret in Their Eyes was internationally applauded, sweeping Argentina's top film prizes and nabbing the Oscar for best foreign-language film. But it appears the Americanized remake by writer-director Billy Ray didn't exactly live up to the original.
With an A-list cast consisting of Chiwitel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts, it was deemed to be one of the better films of the year. However, critics are saying the actors—though each brilliant in their own right—just don't quite click, leaving the film a bit inconsistent and, in fact, boring.
Here's what they had to say:
The Wrap's Alonso Duralde says, "Chiwitel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts don't quite click in inconsistent thriller."
"Secret in Their Eyes certainly aims high in its attempts to marry the personal and the political," Duralde writes. "But by the time you hit the movie's big third-act twists, the film's inconsistencies and artificialities prevent those moments from playing as anything other than gimmicky. This isn't a lazy or contemptuous movie, but for all its ambitions, it just doesn't work."
The Guardian's Jordan Hoffman writes, "Starry thriller remake should be left in the dark."
"Chiwetel Ejiofor, one of our top-tier film actors right now, is on good form throughout, and the others act their hearts out, too," Hoffman explains. "But they are somewhat left out to dry in a production that feels more like syndicated television than a feature film. The events of Secret in Their Eyes may have consumed these characters for 13 years, but you're likely to forget this movie after 45 minutes."
Variety's Justin Chang says, "a superb supporting turn by Julia Roberts is the most welcome revelation of this clever but workmanlike English-language remake."
He adds, "The movie manages to register its own identity in gradual, piecemeal fashion, even as it doesn't deviate too dramatically from its predecessor's narrative template. [Writer-director] Ray reproduces some of the original film's most memorable images and sequences wholesale… While this PG-13-rated movie generally avoids the lurid violence and sexuality that crept in around the corners of Campanella's "Secret," the filmmaking also feels appreciably grittier and less precious."
Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips says the remake does its job, but just doesn't quite hit home.
"If you've never seen the 2009 original from Argentina…It's extremely high-grade pulp, satisfying as a romance and a crime drama," Phillips writes. "Writer-director Billy Ray's Americanized redux isn't a disaster, exactly; it keeps its head down and does its job. But nothing quite gels, or clicks, or makes itself at home in its adopted setting…The movie is a karaoke routine, not its own convincing song of love and death and the aftermath."