It takes a certain kind of responsibility to carry a badge and a gun. In law enforcement, one must trust in their own moral compass enough to remain impartial and just – even when the circumstances of a particular crime are deeply, devastatingly personal. That’s the dilemma faced by Julia Roberts in this fall’s remake Secret in Their Eyes – as an FBI investigator, she’s suddenly faced with her worst nightmare when someone found savagely murdered in a dumpster turns out to be her own daughter. The first trailer for the star-laden thriller fully imparts the horror of her situation.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Nicole Kidman co-star as the investigator’s partner and presiding district attorney, respectively, both of whom agonize over being forced to let the suspected killer walk free. Neither can let it go – and 13 years later, the partner comes back to the case, having gathered what he believes is necessary evidence to again go after the suspect. Their reopening of the investigation soon becomes a race against time when Roberts’ investigator, plunged back into the agony of her most excruciating loss, decides to take matters into her own hands.
[zerg]It’s familiar material, to be sure, but the stellar cast and surely taut direction here (from Billy Ray, who scribed Captain Phillips and helmed Breach) puts Secret in Their Eyes a cut above the rest of the loose-cannon-cop thrillers out there. That this is also a remake of a brilliant nail-biter (Argentine El secreto de sus ojos, which won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2010) just helps matters.
Secret in Their Eyes lands on October 23. Expect this to be a stealth Oscar candidate in the vein of Prisoners – it looks like Roberts, Ejiofor and Kidman all have showy roles.
A tight-knit team of FBI investigators, along with their District Attorney supervisor, is suddenly torn apart when they discover that one of their own teenage daughters has been brutally murdered. Written and directed by Academy Award® nominee Billy Ray (Captain Phillips, The Hunger Games), and produced by Academy Award® winner Mark Johnson (Rain Man, “Breaking Bad”), Secret In Their Eyes is an intense, powerful, haunting thriller starring Academy Award® nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Academy Award® winners Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts.