SECRET IN THEIR EYES   2.5****

"Secret in Their Eyes", stars some heavy hitters: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman. The movie is a mystery/thriller that is a remake of an Argentina movie from 2009 which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.. In the original film, the Julia Roberts character was a man and his wife was killed. In this one, Julia plays an F.B.I. agent in Los Angeles who is on the terrorism squad. This is around 2002, right after 9/11. A suspected terrorist Mosque is being watched when a girl's body is found in a dumpster, out back. The girl is Julia's daughter and, as can be expected, she is overcome with grief. Chiwetel is her partner and feels guilty about the death. It seems he was supposed to meet the girl just hours before the murder and he bailed on her for something else. Nicole plays the  district attorney and friend of both Julia & Chiwetel who tries to put the killer behind bars but the man is quickly released since he is supposedly an invaluable snitch for the FBI for providing names of terrorists. . For 13 years, Ray logs onto the criminal database and eventually finds a man who might have been responsible for Julia’s daughter’s death and tries to get Nicole to reopen the case. You do have to pay close attention because the story jumps back and forth  between 2002 & 2015 quite a bit, and sometimes it's hard to tell what year it is and thus detracts from the momentum of the film. However the story does show the effects of vengeance and how it can drastically change a person.

One of my problems with the film is that Kidman and Ejiofor share a side story where it's strongly hinted and somewhat revealed that they have a romantic history. I'm fine with romance where it works within the context of the story. But for the life of me I couldn't find a good reason for this romance to be in the film at all. It just doesn't fit within the story. Also, I don’t think the actual investigation is as intriguing as it could have been which is in part due to the frequent flashbacks.

All in all it isn’t a really bad movie, it just ends up being a very forgettable one….an unnecessary remake and a waste of some high powered talent. Wait and catch It, if at all, on a free streaming TV station.

It's rated "PG-13" for violence, language and some sexual content-no nudity- and has a running time of 1 hour & 51 minutes.  

Clark