Argentina’s The Secret in Their Eyes is a complex crime-investigative drama, with strong moral and messages, which emerged as a surprise Oscar winner of the 2009 Best Foreign Language Film.
 
The protagonist of the increasingly engrossing tale is former Buenos Aires state court criminal investigator Benjamin Esposito (popular Argentinean actor Ricardo Darin). Benjamin is recently retired but he is not at peace with himself—an event of the past continues to haunt him. A twenty-five year -year old case, which resulted in many lost opportunities, still preoccupies his memories and his life. As a result, he decides to write a novel about the case, which alters the course of his life in the hopes of finding closure after years of uncertainty.
 
Alternating between past and present, “The Secret in Their Eyes” proceeds to tell the story of a 1974 brutal rape-murder of a beautiful twenty-three year old woman and Espósito’s attempt to solve the case. In the course of the investigation Espósito is struck by the victim’s husband, Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago), a young bank employee whose singular love and devotion for his wife only puts into question Espósito’s own obsession with his newly appointed superior Irene (Soledad Villamil), a beautiful and upper-class sophisticate with a law degree from Cornell.
 
Espósito and his quirky partner, Sandoval, Argentina’s renowned comic Guillermo Francella, whom he must often rescue from drunken escapades – identify and track down their suspect, Gomez (Javier Godino), and with the help of Irene, secures his confession. As the case seems to be over and Espósito is on the verge of revealing his feelings for Irene, his life begins to unravel.

In Blue Jasmine – a superb Cate Blanchett displays some of her finest film work to date as Jasmine, a high life-loving New York socialite whose life turns upside down when her wheeler dealer husband (Alec Baldwin) is imprisoned for embezzlement
Forced to move in with Ginger, her working-class sister – played by an equally forceful Sally Hawkins – she confronts the new milieu with a mixture of contempt, revulsion and embarrassment, especially when confronting Ginger’s ex-husband Augie (Andrew Dice Clay) who blames her for ruining his life and marriage.
Woody Allen effortlessly and skilfully flits between Jasmine’s past and present lifestyles, contrasting the laziness of the kept woman alongside the hard-up, desperate, hard-to-like wreck she has become. While Blanchett is the undoubtedly centrepiece of the film, Allen proves himself to be America’s best living ensemble director by eliciting beautifully etched performances from a stunning supporting cast.
As we are aware, Cate Blanchett went on to win the Oscar for Best Female Actress for her performance in Blue Jasmine and deservedly so. It’s a grinding portrayal of a woman dropped into a financial and moral crisis where compromise and self-criticism are the first things she needs to confront, and the last things she wants to.