#2,225: Secret in Their Eyes

Best of Enemies - ★★★☆☆
On the one hand, it seems impossible to imagine people talking like this on television today. But on the other hand, this is how everyone on TV talks to each other today.

Riley's First Date? - ★★½☆☆
Sometimes you can see all the math. This is a logical 'and then' short film to support Inside Out, and it makes sense that it focuses on the jokier stuff from the movie. But it's boring.

The Big Short - ★★★½☆
This movie makes some bold choices about how to tell a complex story. Two specific scenes made me worry it going to teeter over the edge into the territory of slow and boring, but the pacing only picks up as it goes. I had fun watching this and I'm very curious to see how it does in wide release.

Secret In Their Eyes - ★★½☆☆
If you're going to watch just one version of this movie, make it the Argentinian original. The US edition has half a dozen distinct changes that, while I can easily imagine the completely reasonable concerns and conversations that would have lead to them, do not in any way make for a better movie.

Among those, the better changes are how the story gets wedged into the US setting and maybe the 'hollywood' ending. The changes for the worse are the boringified romance* and the boringified sports arena scene. And that goofy poster. Look at that. Somewhere there's a designer who submitted this thing on a dare who can't believe things got so far out of hand.

*When I saw the other one, I said I was looking forward to seeing how the lovely and cinematic device representing the romance would be adapted in the English version, because it was going to be tricky. So how did it turn out? It didn't! The closest we get is a couple scenes where folks stand around and talk about their feelings.