A close CTE unit is ripped apart when they discover their next case, the brutal murder of a teenage girl, is the daughter of one of their own. When push comes to shove, how far would you go to avenge a fallen member?
When the trailer first came out, it seemed really intriguing, and it perked my interest enough to make me want to review it; oh how quickly feelings change. The movie is based on the film El secreto de sus ojos by Juan José Campanella, and I'm slightly curious as to what the differences are between the original and the remake, but after watching this version, I'm not sure I really want to do that much research. The saving grace of this movie is the acting. That is it. The writing is weak, and the directing is all right, but with this cast you could just set up a camera, and they would give you the same quality.
The movie feels a bit underwhelming in spite of the fact that there are great performances from the actors involved, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Dean Norris, Alfred Molina and so on. These are great actors/actresses and even when the script isn't that great, they still are able to take okay and make it okay-plus. The relationships, both family and work place, feel real, and you do root for them in the movie. I really can't say enough about the acting in the film, but that is what you hope is going to happen when you have multiple award winners in your film. The acting is captivating. It really is. Chiwetel Ejiofor is an amazing actor and the pain and anguish that his character feels just seeps through his face and through the screen, and Julia Roberts ages her persona, not her looks but her entire being from the loss of her daughter in the film, and it is heart breaking to watch her character go through that. But there are characters where you wonder how you're supposed to feel about them. Dean Norris plays a quasi-bumbling cop who I think is supposed to be the comedic sidekick, but that never really plays out, which is upsetting because Norris is just another great actor who isn't used to his full potential in this film, and I think we're supposed to feel somewhat upset when certain actions befall Michael Kelly's 'Reg Siefert', but you don't.
The film falls flat. The trailer presented the film as though it was going to be this riveting cop thriller, and instead the film feels empty and under-paced and has some very clunky transitions from when the events took place in 2002 to the present in 2015. There are parts in the movie that really make you wonder if people are that cold and callous, and maybe they are but you still hope for more.
Sadly, the third act just unravels, and you are left feeling empty and just maybe that was the point of the film - to leave the audience feeling as empty and as hopeless as the characters in the film. Even the very end leaves you scratching your head as all the events start to unravel, and while we all know that life doesn't always work out the way we planned it to, this movie left this humble critic wanting to yell "OH COME ON!!"
Unfortunately for the cast and crew, because I know they worked hard on it, this movie won't be making much noise, and it would serve you best to just wait for it to come out on cable in about a year or so whenever everyone (myself included) will go "oh yeah, I completely forgot about that movie. What else is on TV? Which is a shame. Now, I can't stop you from going to watch the film if you are a big Ejiofor fan or a Julia Roberts or Kidman fan, so if you feel compelled to watch it on the big screen, wait until an early morning showing. If this movie had cast anyone else, this would be getting a much lower grade.
