Foregoing the emotion at the core of Juan José Campanella’s Oscar-winning drama The Secret in Their Eyes, Billy Ray’s cold procedural remake (titled Secret in Their Eyes, evidently taking advice from Justin Timberlake’s Sean Parker) walks the walk, transplanting the story to a post-9/11 Los Angeles from 1970’s Argentina. The motivations are somewhat different this time around. Instead of writing a novel, Ray (Chiwetel Ejiofor) returns to his old stomping grounds to pay a visit to the one that got away: both his work crush Claire (Nicole Kidman) and a murder suspect whom he thinks he’s located.
The murder in question occurs adjacent to a mosque under surveillance by the joint counter terrorism task force. This partnership between the local FBI field office, in 2002, is led by a prosecutor with political ambition named Morales (Alfred Molina). The women raped and murdered is Carolyn Cobb (Zoe Graham), the daughter of Jess (Julia Roberts), an FBI field agent working along side Ray and assistant DA Claire.
Despite some misdirection and stakes related the counterterrorism work they’re doing, eventually the man (Joe Cole) is found. House of Cards’ Michael Kelly is just as cunning as Reg, an agent who is willing to let Carolyn’s murderer walk free. Reg’s willingness to assist his snitch, along with Morales’ willingness to look the other way, are the only critiques the film offers of mistakes made in counterterrorism, as they quietly accept fate, Jess more so.
Cutting back and forth between past and present with a few clues (computers, cell phones, hair styles), the story becomes a little more disorienting than it should be. Exploring legal, moral, and ethical boundaries — emotional ones are ignored, despite a potential work romance that never blossoms between Ray and Claire — perhaps a grittier, meatier version of the film exists on the cutting room floor.
Billy Ray’s previous work as director (the journalism thriller Shattered Glass and espionage thriller Breach) work as cold procedurals, yet Secret In Their Eyes is lacking a certain instinctive energy and heart that ought to pull the piece together. The motivations are unclear and its structure is often muddled, bouncing between 2002 and present day all while its leads Ray, Claire and Jess grapple with complex, but undercooked emotional and ethical issues. We’re reminded, of course, of clues Jess has dropped during the film’s would-be climax, in a sequence that seems like too little, too late; the mourning has taken its toll on all three of our leads.
Alongside the recent output of Denis Villeneuve, Secret In Their Eyes seems rather shallow. It has the standard beats and plot points that should work in theory, yet the intrigue that helped propel Campanella’s original is never found. It’s a mature thriller that keeps dropping clues in perhaps the most obvious ways — then again I’ve seen the original. Here is a remake that makes you wonder, why bother?
Secret In Their Eyes is now in wide release.