An allegorical detective story

Rating: Null/10 (15 July 2011)

'The Secret in their Eyes' is, on the whole, a very well constructed film. The direction has real visual flare at times (especially noticeable in the dream-like flash-back that opens the film) and the performances are generally excellent. If one were to be hyper-critical then one might point out the rather invasive use of a highly melodramatic musical score at times, or odd moments where the plot feels clichéd and unbelievable (for instance getting a confession from a rapist by insulting him about the size of his manhood until he becomes so enraged that he forgets himself and admits what he has done). Where the film works best is as an allegory for a troubling Argentinian past. Set in the late 90s, the narrative deals with a man attempting to understand and come to terms with a brutal rape and murder that he was involved in investigating in the early/mid 1970s. This was the time during which the Peron government was over-thrown in Argentina and replaced by a brutal regime which embarked on the "dirty war" against its own people - a time of government sanctioned murder, torture and disappearances. It is easy to see the rape/murder victim as emblematic of both the state and its people during the 1970s. The crime is en expression of the way in which innocence and trust (it is significant that the murderer is in fact known to his victim) were violated and destroyed by a government which betrayed its own population. The film emphasises this by tracing the way in which the legal system itself becomes increasingly corrupted and obstructive of justice with the regime change that came in the '70s. Our liberal and morally decent/responsible hero finds himself increasingly frustrated by judges who attempt to block his investigation and who ultimately free the murderer in order for the government to use him as an assassin in the "dirty war".
All of this is set against the recurring theme of memory and the need to find some kind of catharsis and redemption through exploring and resolving past horrors/trauma. The hero's decision to return to the case twenty five years after the murder suggests a nation that needs to return to its own past in order to put things in their place. This said, the films message is ultimately a positive one - the hero learns the need to not only confront the past, but also to find some accommodation with it so he can move on with his life, which has been held in a kind of limbo (perhaps much like Argentinian society) since the murder took place. This progress is particularly marked by the way in which, at the end of the narrative, he finally takes the plunge and begins a romantic relationship with the woman he has been in love with since his days working on the case in the DA's office. It seems that he (Argentina) can only move on and progress towards more healthy and happy times if he (it) can first confront and recognise the nature of the past; something that is apparently impossible for the victims husband who takes another path - one in which he remains trapped in the horror of the past and whose life effectively ends with the death of his beautiful young wife in the 1970s.