The Secret in Their Eyes, written by Eduardo Sacheri and Juan Jose Campanella, based on the novel by the former and directed by the latter

The Secret in Their Eyes, written by Eduardo Sacheri and Juan Jose Campanella, based on the novel by the former and directed by the latter

A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:

-              https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E  and   http://realini.blogspot.ro/

The Secret in Their eyes is a phenomenal film.

In words form some magnificent novels:

-          It is adjectival and medicine, or real horror show- the latter I took from A Clockwork Orange

The film has won the Academy Awards and fifty one other creditable prizes and it is in short a chef d’oeuvre.

Ricardo Darin is astounding in the role of the legal counselor Benjamin Esposito and his partner, Soledad Villamil is equally impressive as Irene Menendez Hastings.

Benjamin Esposito has been in love with his superior, Irene Menendez without bringing himself to act upon it for a long time.

This staggering story offers flashbacks and we start off with a retired Esposito who looks back at his career, love and a terrible murder that haunts him.

It is not the ordinary crime story, wherein we are offered various hypotheses and there are unexpected events.

This is much more complicated than that.

There is a love story, but also:

-          a meditation on politics, justice, the meaning of life, class difference, democracy and abuses in totalitarian systems

Throughout, I found some of my preferred positive psychology themes, with negativity in a leading role.

Benjamin Esposito is mostly negative, sad and unhappy, because for a long time the main suspect escapes him.

But he is also depressed because he is in love with a woman that belongs to a different class, is richer, in a higher position and considerably younger.

Paradoxically, his negativity helps because if positivity helps people in most professions, resulting in a more successful private and professional life, on top of prolonging life and making for healthier individuals, in some jobs it is better to have a negative mindset.

Detectives, air traffic controllers and others need a negative attitude because that helps them see better the details, whereas positive folks have a broader perspective, they are not as good when it comes down to details.

I also thought of Blink, the Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell when Esposito is sure that Gomez id his man from the first moments that he encounters him.

Another classic of psychology that has a relation with this staggering film is Influence by Robert Cialdini, wherein the good cop and bad cop technique is explained- it is used efficiently in the moving picture.

In just a few words, after Liliana Coloto is raped and murdered, it looks like her case will remain unsolved.

It is actually shut, but the hero is able to look at some of her photos and identify a suspicious look first and then the suspect.

The widow is a man who does not want the death penalty for the killer, for he says that four shots are not enough…

I would rather be in his place if he gets off so easily and I want him to stay in prison for life and not escape without suffering.

The dialogue becomes philosophical at times when the issue of the meaning of life is discussed and what is the point of going through an empty life, where nothing happens at all and I might add an existence without closure, with an endless pain and longing for the most beloved who is no more and has been raped and killed with extreme violence.

To make matters not just worse, but unbearable, I can say without a spoiler alert that the murderer is apprehended, he gives himself away, but this is not enough in a corrupt, failed system where they need this kind of ruthless killer and they release and use him for their dirty work that requires villains like Gomez.

So the question is what to do in a society where the murderer is released and there is no justice to be obtained “legally”?

Sonja Lyubomirsky in her book The How of Happiness gives an example wherein parents of a killed girl found the resources to not only forgive and engage in a social, humanitarian project with the…assassin!

I found this too much to contemplate and I understand better the actions of Porter, outstandingly portrayed by Mel Gibson in Payback.

The Secret in their Eyes is a mind boggling experience.