The Secret In Their Eyes, 2010 (Grade A)

Director: Juan Jose Campenella
Awards: Academy Award Best Foreign Film
Starring: Ricardo Darin; Guillermo Francella; Soledad Villamil; Paso Rago; Javier Godino; Jose Lusi Gioia; Carla Quevedo; Rudy Romano; Mario Alarcon

sez says: this is a perfectly crafted film. It is some mix between a mystery and a romance and a suspense-thriller and a drama: It contains elements of each but is not any one of these things.  And while it is a wonderful amalgam of all those genres, it is also about bigger issues. For instance: It looks at what gives life meaning to individuals, suggesting that it is never the same for anyone but that  everyone is animated by some passion that can not be escaped.  It also asserts that our past is not 'some other life' but rather it is the same life we have now -- but if we let ourselves linger in the past we will give up any hope for a future.  That connecting of how we become who we are and suggesting it is never to late to regain a path that seems lost has tremendous power in the hand of this crew--remarkably well done all round.  (Grade A)