The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de sus Ojos) (2009)

My last article, about the film noir Los tallos amargos (The Bitter Stems), was released in 1956, and its story takes place in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de sus Ojos) also takes place in Argentina, mostly in Buenos Aires. Released fifty-three years later, it obviously marks a contrast with the earlier film. Both films explore similar themes of betrayal and suspicion, although in very different ways. In Los tallos amargos, the main character is consumed by suspicion and the need for revenge. In The Secret in Their Eyes, the main character is the victim of another character’s need for revenge and a grudge held over many years.

Click here to see my article about Los tallos amargos (The Bitter Stems).

The Secret in Their Eyes starts with fuzzy, slow-motion shots of people at a train station. An as-yet-unidentified man (Benjamin Esposito) heads for a train about to leave the platform and the train station. An as-yet-unidentified woman (Irene Menéndez Hastings) is left behind on the platform, but she runs after the train. She catches up enough to put a hand on the window of the car in which Benjamin is riding.

The film cuts to Benjamin Esposito writing the opening sequence just seen on the screen. He is dissatisfied and crosses out all of it. He starts writing again about a day further in the past: June 21, 1974. Now he is writing in the voice of Ricardo Morales, and the day is one that Morales will never forget. Morales, as a character in what Benjamin is writing, recalls a lovely day sharing breakfast with his new bride. Benjamin is dissatisfied with this opening, too, and rips up what he has written. When he starts writing again, he describes a violent rape scene that is depicted on-screen for viewers in horrific detail.

Benjamin visits his old friend, Irene, at his old office at court. She was once his coworker, and she is still working at the court as a judge. He tells her that he has started writing in his retirement and wants to write about the Morales case. She and Benjamin have never talked about the case since it was closed. Irene doesn’t really answer Benjamin’s questions about it, and she is rather sarcastic with him, but she does give Benjamin an old typewriter, one he used at the office, so that he doesn’t have to write by hand with a fountain pen. Benjamin tells Irene he has no excuses now to avoid writing, but he just doesn’t know where to start. Irene tells him to start with what he remembers most clearly, which is the moment when he met her. The film cuts to that moment, in flashback, when Benjamin fell in love at first sight.

The murder/rape victim in the Morales case is Liliana Coloto, twenty-three years old, a school teacher, recently married to Ricardo Morales. Police Inspector Baez and Benjamin, who is assigned to the case through the intervention of a fellow court investigator, Romano, talk to Morales about his wife and deliver the news about her violent death. Two builders, contractors, working in the apartment building become suspects in the murder. They are Jacinto Caceres, a Bolivian, and Juan Robles, an Argentinian. They become suspects at the suggestion of Romano, Benjamin’s career rival. But Romano just wants the case solved and to take credit for it. It is obvious that Caceres and Robles are not the killers because a neighbor saw only one man the day of the murder; however, Romano instructs police officers to beat a confession out of them. Benjamin files a complaint against Romano, who will hold a grudge against Benjamin until he exacts revenge.

(This article about The Secret in Their Eyes contains spoilers for both the film and the novel on which it is based.)

Isidoro Gómez, an old hometown friend of Liliana Coloto’s, was a suspect for Benjamin. In the present, he tells Irene about Gómez, about the way he worships Liliana in all the photos that her husband still has of her. He also tells her that he wants to follow up now because he has been sidetracked for twenty years, and he doesn’t want anything to sidetrack him now. Irene is interested in the case, but she is even more interested in Benjamin’s novel. He is happy to indulge her curiosity because he has been in love with Irene since he first met her, and the novel gives them an excuse to discuss it and thus stay in touch.

Benjamin’s coworker, Pablo Sandoval, is an alcoholic. He even drinks on the job. But he is capable of great insight, and he discovers that Gómez has a passion for soccer, Academy Soccer, in particular. Benjamin finds Pablo at his favorite watering hole, where Pablo tells him what he has learned: “A guy can change anything. His face, his home, his family, his girlfriend, his religion, his god. But there’s one thing he can’t change. He can’t change his passion.” Because of this observation, Pablo and Benjamin eventually find Gómez at a soccer match.

Gómez is goaded into confessing by Benjamin and Irene, but he is eventually released on Romano’s orders. Romano now has a prominent position in the Eva Péron government. Péron is the president of Argentina, and she is leading a dictatorship with violent right-wing tendencies. Her overthrow by a military coup ushers in a period in Argentinian history called the Dirty War. (For more information at Wikipedia about the historical context of this period in the film, click here.)

The remainder of the film follows Benjamin’s research into the Morales cold case and his efforts to write it all down as a cohesive story. This narrative structure allows for plenty of flashbacks, a hallmark of noir films. My description of the film may sound like the switch back and forth between the present (when Benjamin is writing his novel) and the past (when he was still working and investigating the Morales case) is very confusing, but that wasn’t my experience watching the film. Repeat viewings of The Secret in Their Eyes help, too, just like they do for films noir and more recent films. I always say that attention to detail is always important when viewing noir, and that certainly applies to watching The Secret in Their Eyes.

The story is also set against political corruption and violence in Argentina. This general background has a very personal effect on Benjamin Esposito. His rival Romano exacts vengeance on Benjamin for his willingness to point out Romano’s corruption in the Morales case. Romano is capable of holding a grudge for a long time, and by the time he can exact his vengeance, he holds a lot more political power in a corrupt administration. He uses his political power to convince others to help him, making it even easier for him to use deadly violence.

I read The Secret in Their Eyes, by Eduardo Sacheri, which is the basis for the film. Some of the key differences between the film and the novel include the following:

◊ Inspector Báez helps Benjamin Esposito escape Buenos Aires to the province of Jujuy in the novel. In the film, Irene Menéndez Hastings helps him escape.

◊ Pablo Sandoval sees Benjamin off at the train for Jujuy in the novel, thus adding a bit more weight to their friendship. In the film, it is Irene who sees him off, and viewers see this scene more than once: as it happened and as Benjamin remembers it.

◊ Ricardo Morales and Isidoro Gómez are both dead when Benjamin visits Morales in the novel. In the film, both are alive, and the film doesn’t specify what Benjamin does after he learns this information.

◊ Pablo Sandoval dies of cancer in the novel, and Benjamin has a chance to return from Jujuy to attend his funeral. In the film, he is killed in Benjamin’s apartment, which becomes a warning to Benjamin that his life is in danger.

◊ The film doesn’t say what Benjamin does after he learns that Ricardo Morales and Isidoro Gómez are still alive. The case thus isn’t resolved, at least not in legal terms. The novel is very clear about how Benjamin handles the news that Morales and Gómez are both dead.

◊ In the novel, Benjamin decides to declare his love for Irene, but readers do not learn what her response is. In the film, her response is depicted much more clearly.

The film and the novel are obviously the same story, in spite of these and other differences. The novel’s author, Eduardo Sacheri, cowrote the screenplay with the film’s director, Juan José Campanella. But like so many noir films, the film adaptation is just as good as the novel on which it is based. I enjoyed both very much.

The audio commentary by writer and director Juan José Campanella is available on both the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the film. Campanella provides lots of insights into the film, including the following:

◊ Finding the right tone is important from the start, the first scene. There are two story lines: a love story and detective story, and they don’t function on the same level.

◊ The film starts with a memory, the love scene where Benjamin Esposito leaves on the train, and Irene Menéndez Hastings is left behind on the station platform. People remember specific details; the rest is blurry.

◊ All the storylines are introduced in the first four minutes.

◊ Guillermo Francella (as Pablo Sandoval) is first introduced as blurry image in the background in the court office. He is very popular in Argentina, especially for his comedic performances. Campanella didn’t want his first appearance to provoke laughter or lead viewers to anticipate any comedy.

◊ The widower Ricardo Morales has two sides. He is capable of great love and passion for his wife Liliana Coloto, but he also plots a cold plan for revenge and can keep it going, hidden, for twenty-five years. His phone call to Isidoro Gómez’s mother is a memory of what Morales must have told Benjamin Esposito. Morales’s methodical side starts the phone call, but his passionate side takes over when he breaks down crying and has to hang up in the middle of the conversation.

◊ Low-angle shots allow the audience to feel like they are hiding in each scene, like they are spying on the action.

◊ Many criticized the fact that Esposito spotted the killer in the couple’s photographs. But Campanella says that police officers and court investigators develop an instinct for this sort of detail that is very hard to describe and explain. And Esposito doesn’t think he spots the murderer right away; he sees a suspect, something strange. And it ties in with the theme of the film: how the eyes can reveal so much.

◊ After his release from prison, Isidoro Gómez is working as a bodyguard for Isabel Perón, right-wing president of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. Her ouster helped to fuel Argentina’s so-called Dirty Civil War, which lasted from 1976 to 1983.

◊ In the train station, when Benjamin escapes the capital city of Buenos Aires after Sandoval’s murder in his apartment, he and Irene are dressed in black and white. Everyone else is dressed in color. It evokes a movie from the 1940s, perhaps a romantic one.

The Secret in Their Eyes contains is a wonderful film about a love story that is set against the backdrop of political corruption and violence. The betrayal, misunderstanding, and vengeance that form the basis of the plot are shocking. The narrative draws you in and keeps you engaged, even if, like me, you are not well versed in Argentina’s recent political history. I was truly surprised by the ending.

I usually find the novel to be more enjoyable, but that rule is turned on its head when it comes to noir adaptations: The film is almost always just as good as, if not better than, the novel, even if it makes substantial changes to the plot, as this screenplay does. The author of the novel, Eduardo Sacheri, is credited with cowriting the film’s screenplay. I don’t know how much he contributed, but I did wonder if he used the opportunity to try other scenarios, other outcomes, for some of his characters in the novel. Either way, both the film and the novel are wonderful on their own merits.

August 13, 2009, release date  •  Directed by Juan José Campanella  •  Screenplay by Eduardo Sacheri, Juan José Campanella  •  Based on the novel La Pregunta de sus Ojos by Eduardo Sacheri  •  Music by Federico Jusid  •  Edited by Juan José Campanella  •  Cinematography by Félix Monti

Ricardo Darín as Benjamin Esposito  •  Soledad Villamil as Irene Menéndez Hastings  •  Pablo Rago as Ricardo Morales  •  Javier Godino as Isidoro Gómez  •  Guillermo Francella as Pablo Sandoval  •  Mario Alarcón as Juez Fortuna Lacalle  •  Mariano Argento as Romano  •  José Luis Gioia as Inspector Báez  •  Carla Quevedo as Liliana Coloto  •  Juan José Ortiz as Agent Cardozo  “  Kiko Cerone as Molinari  •  Fernando Pardo as Sicora  •  Sergio López Santana as Jacinto Cáceres  •  Elvio Duvini as Juan Robles  •  Alicia Haydee Pennachi as Gómez’s mother

Distributed by Alta Films (Spain), Sony Pictures Classics (United States)  •  Produced by Haddock Films, 100 Bares, Tornasol Films

The Secret in Their Eyes, by Eduardo Sacheri  •  New York: Other Press, 2005  •  2011 English translation by John Cullen