Recent diabolical viewing on the box or DVD has been...next to nil because I stop watching. Occasionally I will shout 'shaddap!' or worse if it's just too inanely squawky. A repeat of 'Coast' will always soothe the feathers flat again. It never seems to get old.
A film I've watched on DVD recently, I liked for its heart - I was rooting for that hero - and I admired for its characterisation, atmospheric cinematography and narrative skill. A quiet film, it comes with subtitles and I didn't expect to like it, maybe because I don't go in for detective stories in general. But this wasn't really a detective story, only on one level, but there are several levels, all credible.
'The Secrets In Their Eyes,' is based on the novel of the same name by Eduardo Sacheri. It's ostensibly a crime story, and about justice and a corrupted legal system, but more than it's a love story, set in Argentina during the last years of the Junta. I read the book aftewards and there are plot differences but the crux and tone and feel of the story is the same.
It is a story of two heroes, the law man, called Chapparo in the book but Esposito in the movie. He's a diffident character, almsot anti heroic, but such is his quality and his charm...you're rooting for him to get the girl.... and then there is the enduring passion for a murdered wife of the bereaved husband, Morales, who is determined to apply justice if the law will not or cannot, being held on a Junta choke- chain.
I don't want to spoil it, so I won't say more unless asked...but the grieving husband's idea of justice is not what you might suppose, and it costs him every chance of a new start, especially in the novel. A sad book, a sad film, but not depressing because, disgusting villain notwithstanding, waving his - about in threat...and the vileness of the Junta, it deals in warmth and what is quiet is also grand, a whispered epic.
Start with the novel, or the film? I saw the film first. I think the novel offers the stronger story, I find it more believable, but the film doesn't harm or fail the vision of Eduardo Sacheri at all. Some might say it even exalts it.
The book : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Their-Eyes-Eduardo-Sacheri/dp/1590514505
And the film: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305806/quotes
A film I've watched on DVD recently, I liked for its heart - I was rooting for that hero - and I admired for its characterisation, atmospheric cinematography and narrative skill. A quiet film, it comes with subtitles and I didn't expect to like it, maybe because I don't go in for detective stories in general. But this wasn't really a detective story, only on one level, but there are several levels, all credible.
'The Secrets In Their Eyes,' is based on the novel of the same name by Eduardo Sacheri. It's ostensibly a crime story, and about justice and a corrupted legal system, but more than it's a love story, set in Argentina during the last years of the Junta. I read the book aftewards and there are plot differences but the crux and tone and feel of the story is the same.
It is a story of two heroes, the law man, called Chapparo in the book but Esposito in the movie. He's a diffident character, almsot anti heroic, but such is his quality and his charm...you're rooting for him to get the girl.... and then there is the enduring passion for a murdered wife of the bereaved husband, Morales, who is determined to apply justice if the law will not or cannot, being held on a Junta choke- chain.
I don't want to spoil it, so I won't say more unless asked...but the grieving husband's idea of justice is not what you might suppose, and it costs him every chance of a new start, especially in the novel. A sad book, a sad film, but not depressing because, disgusting villain notwithstanding, waving his - about in threat...and the vileness of the Junta, it deals in warmth and what is quiet is also grand, a whispered epic.
Start with the novel, or the film? I saw the film first. I think the novel offers the stronger story, I find it more believable, but the film doesn't harm or fail the vision of Eduardo Sacheri at all. Some might say it even exalts it.
The book : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Their-Eyes-Eduardo-Sacheri/dp/1590514505
And the film: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305806/quotes
