The Secret in Their Eyes
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: April 16, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
33
Mixed:
1
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New YorkerDavid Denby
It's powerfully and richly imagined: a genre-busting movie that successfully combines the utmost in romanticism with the utmost in realism. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Juan Jose Campanella is the writer-director, and here is a man who creates a complete, engrossing, lovingly crafted film. He is filled with his stories. The Secret in Their Eyes is a rebuke to formula screenplays. We grow to know the characters, and the story pays due respect to their complexities and needs. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
Director Juan José Campanella weaves together two love stories--between the victim and her husband, and the investigator and his former boss (Soledad Villamil)--and creates some masterful set pieces; his breathless chase through a packed soccer stadium is a marvel of choreography and top-notch CGI. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
What are the odds that the year's most compelling mystery would end up hanging its hat on the year's richest love story Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The wonder is that the film balances its many genres, from the thorns of murder to the bloom of romance to the thickets of politics, with such easy grace. Read full review
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
The movie grabbed me and wouldn't let go during a bravura set piece at a soccer game when Campanella's camera glides into the stadium, finds Benjamin's face in the crowd and doesn't stop moving (with only a couple of edits) for six breathtaking minutes. Read full review
100
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
To call it a masterpiece is premature: That's a title to be earned only in retrospect. But I've seen it twice now and can't imagine what I would change. It fits together tightly as a suspenseful puzzle, yet it's also emotionally rewarding and sardonically funny. Read full review
100
EmpireKim Newman
Humane and harrowing, highly recommended. This one will stay with you. Read full review
90
Next Best PictureNadia DalimonteMar 25, 2026
Campanella’s suspenseful direction makes for an emotionally resonant (and at times very upsetting) watch about enduring love, pain, and the evasiveness of true justice. Read full review
90
Boxoffice MagazinePete Hammond
Campanella has laced his story with twists and turns worthy of Hitchcock and the framing device of the novel (which forces the protagonist to sort out the whole thing through writing) is ingenious. Read full review
90
VarietyJonathan Holland
A deeply rewarding throwback to the unself-conscious days when cinema still strove to be magical, The Secrets in their Eyes is simply mesmerizing. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah Young
A riveting Argentine thriller spiked with witty dialogue and poignant love stories. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
A beautifully calibrated movie in the most traditional sense of the word -- the ideal marriage of topic, talent and tone. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
An attractive, messy drama riddled with violence and edged with comedy that comes with a hint of Grand Guignol, a suggestion of politics and three resonant, deeply appealing performances. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
The Secret in Their Eyes never lets you forget that you're watching a movie - and never lets you wish you were doing anything else. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Although it is structured like a thriller, and its plot dominated by Benjamin's detective work, The Secret in Their Eyes is really a cautionary tale about the consequences of a life of too much apprehension and propriety. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The Secret in Their Eyes has a decent shot at wearing down resistance to subtitled films. Don't be put off. This spellbinder from Argentina will sneak up and floor you. It's that good. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The Secret in Their Eyes is that rare police procedural that engages emotions as well as intellect. Read full review
88
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
There are people, powerful people, who don't want old cases dug up. It's a tribute to the story's construction that the mystery only deepens, the more Benjamin digs. Read full review
85
NPRBob Mondello
The Secret in Their Eyes finds secrets everywhere -- even in what's driving Ben and Irene as they separately examine the decisions they made back in the 1970s. For both of them, as for their country, accurate remembrance of that period is crucial. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A drama that transcends cleverness. This beautiful film, directed with subtlety and grace by Juan José Campanella, really is about moving from fear to love. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
This macabre-yet-moving Argentinian drama from director Juan Jose Campanella is nuanced and full of intelligence and emotion; just when you think you have a bead on it, it gently swerves into richer places. Read full review
80
SlateDana Stevens
An old-fashioned movie-movie, the kind that's substantial enough to go out to dinner after and discuss all the way through dessert. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The performances are tender, the script elegant, the cinematography (especially during a virtuoso chase scene in a soccer stadium) artful. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
An elegant romantic thriller adapted from a novel of the same name, is a terrific film. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
A nearly perfect love story/murder mystery that unfortunately falters at the end. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
At times you may be moved as by no other foreign film this year - and then 10 minutes later be leaning forward in the seat just to stay awake. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Although The Secret in Their Eyes has neither the power, the artistry, nor the electric energy of its fellow Oscar nominee, France's "A Prophet," the Argentine film nonetheless engages with style, suspense, and seriousness of intent. Criminal intent and otherwise. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
Although it has some memorably disquieting scenes, this story of long-delayed justice is sustained by its melancholy more than its thrills. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
The performances are strong enough to elevate things. Darin, Villamil and Francella are the kinds of actors who you just know you've seen before, but whom you probably haven't. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNov 30, 2015
It’s a cop movie that’s largely uninterested in cops, crimes, or criminals. And yet, despite all that, the film is at times an effective, evocative mood piece. The funereal pall of sorrow that hangs over everything these characters do has a strange, surprising pull. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The film sprawls across two decades and 127 minutes, but there isn't a memorable image in it. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Campanella’s script (which is adapted from a novel by Eduardo Sacheri) bogs down, however, when the focus of the story is on Benjamín, who is dogged by his memories and his inability to make a play for Irene. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith Uhlich
About as deep as a kiddie pool, which isn't to say it's an unpleasant frolic. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineEric HendersonNov 19, 2015
Billy Ray unfurls the parallel time structure with the same flat, procedural monotony applied by Juan José Campanella to the original film. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The secret here is that the movie is rather tasteless. It has the high, slightly nauseating stink of perfume on garbage. Read full review
20
Village VoiceNicolas Rapold
Campanella, who overconfidently takes his time, outfits the film with ludicrous interrogation scenes, a drunken colleague who provides comic relief and redemptive tragedy, and a climactic flood of memories that plays like a trailer. Read full review
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