Thirteen years ago in Los Angeles, there was a counter-terrorism unit that formed after 9-11. The head of the office was Martin Morales and under him was his new hire, Claire Sloan. Investigators Ray Karsten, Jess Cobb, Bumpy Willis, and Michael Kelly were called in to investigate a body found in a dumpster outside of a mosque. When Ray looked at the body, he figured out that the body is Jess’ daughter, Caroline. Soon after, Jess’ sanity begins to breakdown and she becomes unfit for service. Fast-forward to the present and some of the team has been promoted, Jess is in the process of moving out of the city, and Ray has gone into the private sector. As it turns out, Ray never gave up on the case and found the suspect that got away in the initial investigation but the deeper he searches, the more twisted the case becomes.
SECRET IN THEIR EYES is written/directed by Billy Ray and based on the book EL SECRETO DE SUS OJOS by Argentinian authors Juan Jose Campanella & Eduardo Sacheri. He brought a diverse cast made up of 2 Oscar winners and 1 nominee together in a very emotional film. This movie is a mix of a crime drama and a psychological thriller with you asking yourself, how far would you go to see justice served?
Cast
-Chiwetel Ejiofor as Raymond “Ray” Kasten
-Nicole Kidman as Claire Sloan
-Julia Roberts as Jessica “Jess” Cobb
-Dean Norris as Bumpy Willis
-Michael Kelly as Reg Siefert
-Alfred Molina as Martin Morales
The video is a 1080p AVC transfer.
The contrasting definitely kept the colors from running and making a muddled mess. The movie is meant to keep a certain tone and that is dark. There seemed to be a filter over the video to leave a lot of the color out of the movie and it felt gloomy. The only real standout colors were of the LA Dodgers fans and stadium. The scene was at night but the field was lit like a night game would be. There were some scenes where there was some ghosting in the people moving on screen.
The primary audio track is a DTS HD-MA 5.1 mix.
Like in most dramas, there isn’t a whole lot of “action” for the sound to be tested. This is a dialogue-focused film with excellent voice reproduction. This mix doesn’t suffer the distortion that happens the actors are screaming and raising their voices. The ambient sounds in the office and in the city come through as if it was intended to be the score of the film.
-Audio commentary with director/screenwriter Billy Ray and producer Mark Johnson
-Adapting the story for today’s world: This short featurette has the writer/director go over the story and adapting from the original movie/book.
-Julia Roberts’s discuses her most challenging role: Julia Roberts discusses the raw emotion she put into the film and the role. The focus is on the scene where they find her daughter’s body in the dumpster.
Disc Details
2 Disc set w/ 1 Blu-ray and 1 DVD
Digital copy
Running Time
11 mins
Edition Ratings
Rated R
Region Coding
Region Free
Video Resolution
1080p AVC MPEG-4 AVC
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Audio Mixes
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles
English SDH
French
Spanish
As I mentioned earlier, SECRET IN THEIR EYES has an incredible cast who all perform perfectly to bring this film together. When it was in theaters, I felt like it wasn’t too clear what it was about but I wish I had a better handle on it back then. The Blu-ray has a good audio mix and only an average video transfer. I wish the extras were a bit longer because after watching it, I am interested in more of the behind the scenes info. Whether you rent it or buy it, I would highly recommend checking this movie out.
