A retired criminal investigator can't put an old case down. Years after a young woman's murder went unsolved, he starts writing a novel about it, pulling his former colleague Irene back into a story that was never really finished between them.
Juan Jose Campanella's The Secret in Their Eyes won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2010, beating out fellow nominee A Prophet in a result that still gets argued over by people who love Argentine cinema, and for good reason: the film moves between a decades old murder investigation and a quiet, unresolved romance without ever losing its grip on either one.
Hollywood tried its own version in 2015, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, and Julia Roberts stepping into the roles and the story relocated to a post September 11 Los Angeles. It followed the original's structure closely, but critics at the time noted how much got lost in translation, proof that Campanella's version is doing more than its premise alone would suggest.
Ricardo Darin and Soledad Villamil carry the film's two timelines, aging and unaging in the same frame, and the Rotten Tomatoes consensus still sits at a remarkable 89 percent. It holds up as one of the most purely satisfying mystery dramas of its decade.
The Secret in Their Eyes is streaming now on Hulu, and it rewards patience: let the slow burn work.
