Very Nicely Executed Adult Murder Mystery.

Rating: 8/10 (7 April 2011)

I'm glad they called this "The Secret In Their Eyes" because the director, Campanella, has filled the film with close ups of the faces of people who are mostly lying or manipulative. Happily, he has abjured the usual sickening fads -- the wobbling camera, the instantaneous cuts, the desaturated ghoulish pallet, the revolver held sideways, the two-gun shoot out, the inappropriate wisecracks.
Not that there aren't many exceedingly humorous moments sprinkled throughout the script, particularly in the first half. You have seen the detective too eager to solve the crime chewed out by his angry superior. Please don't trouble to deny it. You've seen it a thousand times. Often the miscreant is forced to hand over his piece and his shield. But you have never seen it done like this. I laughed all the way through it.
Esposito's new boss in the Justice Office, a stern woman named Hastings, is a recent graduate of Cornell which, high as it is above Cayuga's waters, suffers a climate that practically makes cheer illegal. She gets Esposito and his drunken partner Sandoval out of trouble, she tells him, by exercising her social skills, her charm, and her irresistible smile. Thoroughly reamed out, Esposito is about to leave her office but turns and asks humbly, with her permission, what "irresistable smile" is she talking about because he's never seen it.
All this humor is written with the understanding that the audience will get it and it's delivered in a manner consistent with an adult audience. The same isn't true of all the comedy. Esposito and Sandoval illegally examine a woman's house. She returns unexpectedly and they are chased outside by a furious but tiny short-haired dog. They dash out the door, the barking dog in hot pursuit. When they're out of sight, we hear a yelp, and see the dog running back in.
Well, one more example. His wife kicks out the drunken Sandoval and Esposito takes him into his apartment. Sandoval keeps stumbling into things. "Too much furniture," he complains. When Esposito tries to call Sandoval's wife and explain things, he finds that there is no answer because Sandoval's phone has been broken for a year. Esposito decides to drive to Sandoval's house and get the wife. "Why not phone her?", asks Sandoval. Esposito: "You just said your phone was broken." A long pause and Sandoval replies with the logic of the inebriated, "My phone IS broken, but yours isn't." I don't want to get into the plot too much because it's complicated and has a couple of twists that no one could see coming. Some are, let's say, improbably. Having found that a murderer is a soccer fan, Esposito and Sandoval begin visiting games, which Esposito has no interest in. One game a week. Lo, on the fourth, they find themselves only a few seats away from the killer -- out of about 70,000 seats.
The acting could hardly be improved on. Esposito has a face that challenges disbelief. He's modest and completely trustworthy. Sandoval never overplays the drunkenness. Hastings, the boss back at the DA's office, is middle-aged, pretty, and not knock-out beautiful like a movie star. Romano, Esposito's rival who chews him out, is hilarious before he turns to the dark side.
Yes, it's true. You have to read the subtitles. And they're in the Argentine dialect too. But it's worth it. Everything about the film is admirable, including the photography and location shooting. Besides, you get to see what Buenos Aires looks like. It's arguably the most Europeanized city on the continent. And out in the boondocks, they drink mate. I believe you also get a glimpse of pampas grass, a fiendish growth that I had to fight weekly in my California back yard.