Before Her Eyes

It was one of the most tragic cases in the career of FBI agent Ray (Chiwetel Ejiofor) when, of all things, the daughter of his partner Jess (Julia Roberts) is brutally murdered. Together with his colleagues and the responsible prosecutor Claire (Nicole Kidman) Ray quickly succeeds in catching the alleged perpetrator. However, due to lack of evidence, he cannot be charged. 13 years later, Ray has long since left the FBI, but this one case has never let him go. He has been desperately searching for the perpetrator all this time. Now he believes he has found him again. With this knowledge, he returns to Claire and Jess so they can all finally draw a line under this case.

Before Their Eyes is the 2009 American remake of the Argentinian Oscar winner In Their Eyes by Juan José Campanella. Campanella's film is a near-perfect mix of drama and thriller that is so universally good that it doesn't really need a remake. Because there's really no better way to tell this story. Director and screenwriter Billy Ray were well aware of that. That's why he didn't even try to tell a better version of the story, but rather a different one. And that makes this US remake then in a way very interesting.

The beginning is promising. The film starts in an America scarred by paranoia and fear after the September 11, 2011 attacks. The discovery of a body near a mosque is a particularly volatile matter for the FBI. The director has done a very good job of tracing how easily tempers boil over. The scene in which Ray recognizes his partner's daughter in the dead girl and her reaction to it is an extremely intense moment that is oppressively staged and superbly acted. Here the remake reveals its very own strengths, which Billy Ray should have played more to be able to convince all along the line.

But unfortunately he doesn't succeed. For example, the plot line about the unrequited love between the investigator and the prosecutor can't even begin to develop the same emotional power as it does in the original. There just isn't any real chemistry between Chiwetel Ejiofor and Nicole Kidman that would make such great emotions believable. They both play well on their own, but together it just doesn't want to work. Julia Roberts puts in a very strong performance, but stays too much in the background or doesn't even make an appearance in many scenes, so she can't expand her role as much as she needed to in the end.

Towards the end, Ray seems to get back on track and achieve the intensity that set the film apart at the beginning. But then he varies the ending of the original in one crucial way. It's understandable in a way and coherent in the context of the changes he's made to the story as a whole. Still, in doing so, he takes away the very thing that made Campanella's film so unique and what gave it such a lasting impact. It's really just a tiny change, but one that has a huge effect on the overall picture.

Before Their Eyes is not a bad film, but for connoisseurs of the original, despite many of its own impulses, it is ultimately completely unnecessary. However, if you don't know the Argentine film and are in the mood for a suspenseful but rather quietly told thriller drama in the cinema, you can definitely watch this decent but just not great remake. With small deductions worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp