![]() ![]() Julia Roberts does stand out here-and I don’t just mean figuratively. The leads, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Ray, and Nicole Kidman as Claire, are fantastic actors and even more fantastically good looking, but they share exactly zero chemistry, rendering their will-they-won’t-they subplot as translucent as your finishing powder. The Homeland Security offices are artfully disheveled, the walls covered in boutique hotel paintings, the file boxes stacked just so it should seem real, yet it all somehow feels as though the art department has spray cans of Hollywood Gloss with which they liberally coat each set. Twelve years later, Ray, returns to L.A., convinced he has found Carolyn’s murderer, and enlists the help of Claire, his former co-worker and unrequited love, who is now the District Attorney. When Jess’ daughter Carolyn is discovered murdered beside a mosque the team has been investigating, Ray’s failure to bring the murderer to justice threatens to upend the Department’s operation. His partner is Jess, a sharp investigator and dedicated single mom. to work for the newly formed Department of Homeland Security. The foundation is there: it’s 2003, Ray is an FBI agent sent to L.A. Like the folly of trying to apply makeup in a speeding car, all you end up with is a pretty mess. ![]() Americanizing The Secret in Their Eyes is an idea that works better in theory than in practice. It manages a delicate but assured balance between being a taut thriller, unrequited love story, and nuanced character study that haunts you long after the credits have rolled. The original 2009 Argentinian film, The Secret in Their Eyes, already won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and deservedly so. In fact, the whole movie feels like one big “for your consideration” promo reel. This might seem derisive, but it certainly seems like the tired cliché of “pretty star gets drastic make-under in hopes of snagging an Oscar nom” applies here. Much of the movie has Julia not just glammed-down, but nearly unrecognizable. That is, it must have been thrilling until you read the script for The Secret in Their Eyes. Still, you must get a bit of a thrill being hired to ply your craft on one of the most beautiful women in the world (even if this isn’t the first time). You’ve made up a lot of Hollywood’s most famous faces, so I doubt that you’re ever star-struck. ![]()
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