MovieChat Forums > El secreto de sus ojos (2010) Discussion > you think he would care the same if it w...

you think he would care the same if it was an ugly woman?

posted 15 years ago by dimagic
35 replies | jump to latest

i am not sure how to call it, perhaps a hypocrisy, but he was so obsessed about this case just because she was pretty. less attractive woman - and it could have been just a normal investigation with two innocent people end up in jail.
he needs to write a book about all the other cases in which he didn't give a sh!t about the victims and failed to see the flaws in police investigation.
take all the romantic sentiments and symbolism aside, and the main character comes out quite repulsive and a douche, in my opinion. nice cinematography and production values, which make this film watchable, but otherwise it is just mindless and pretentious movie, pretending to say something important when in fact it is as fake and shallow as the oscar it has won.
frankly, i am surprised this story was not made into one of the episodes of law and order, that campanella directed. i guess now we know why he won.

[–] federicocristina 15 years ago

i am not sure how to call it, perhaps a hypocrisy, but he was so obsessed about this case just because she was pretty. less attractive woman - and it could have been just a normal investigation with two innocent people end up in jail.
he needs to write a book about all the other cases in which he didn't give a sh!t about the victims and failed to see the flaws in police investigation.

Wrong. Espósito was obsessed with Morales love and passion towards his now dead wife.

...it is just mindless and pretentious movie, pretending to say something important when in fact it is as fake and shallow as the oscar it has won.

...and here is where I didn't care any more about your post.

[–] dimagic 15 years ago

Wrong. Espósito was obsessed with Morales love and passion towards his now dead wife.

he didn't know the husband when he came to apartment for the first time. he saw her dead and stopped talking, with tragic expression on his face. it was clear this is what strongly affected him initially. when he is remembering the case in the beginning, his flashback is of the woman and not of her husband. the "love and passion" of the husband was discovered only later, and in my opinion esposito still wouldn't care unless the wife was so pretty.
you failed to understand the point of my post just because i said something negative about the movie.

[–] psychozealot 8 years ago

the scene was brutal, you cannot know whether he has seen something more brutal or not.

[–] algroth_1 15 years ago

take all the romantic sentiments and symbolism aside, and the main character comes out quite repulsive and a douche, in my opinion. nice cinematography and production values, which make this film watchable, but otherwise it is just mindless and pretentious movie, pretending to say something important when in fact it is as fake and shallow as the oscar it has won.

Well, I don't see how the character comes off as a douche, sorry, but regarding your other comments about the film, I have to disagree. The film is essentially a very classic crime drama, it's mostly an excercise in form and rarely pretends to be anything more than that, and to be honest I don't see anything wrong with this, particularly. It was a very entertaining film which managed to capture its audience throughout its duration and immerse them into its world, that's what the film primarily tried to achieve and did so.

On the other hand, the very last sequence does have an interesting concept motivating it, which is the difference between imprisonment and captivity. It's a very literal and hard-hitting image, the one where we see Gómez trapped in a cage with absolutely no contact with the outer world except for a man who won't even engage him in a conversation, and he'll have to be like this till the end of his days. You may argue whether this moment does add depth or just another theme to the film, but it's certainly not vacuous as you claim it to be.

Now, as for the actual premise of your post...

i am not sure how to call it, perhaps a hypocrisy, but he was so obsessed about this case just because she was pretty. less attractive woman - and it could have been just a normal investigation with two innocent people end up in jail.

The problem regarding the two workers they caught in Gomez's place was that they weren't guilty at all, they just happenned to end up in jail because Romano was a racist douchebag. Aside from that, Espósito was first moved by the case not because how pretty the girl was but because how badly beaten she had been. I agree that later on that might have influenced him in some way, but it was a minor factor. In fact, the case was pretty much left for dead at one point until Espósito met with Morales and saw his obsession with finding Gómez, and from then on that was the real motivation that kept Espósito working on the case.

Anyways, I don't see how this film differs in that respect from 90% of all major commercial productions worldwide. It seems like somewhat strange to get riled up for such a minor detail in this particular film.

...

[–] dimagic 15 years ago

fair enough.

[–] urgrue-1 15 years ago

Let's twist this around a bit - would YOU as a viewer have cared as much about the film if she was fat and ugly with a beard?

I can honestly say no I wouldn't have. I'd still care and it'd still be a great film, but it wouldn't affect me the same way.

I don't think that makes me (or most of the rest of the planet) repulsive hypocrit douchebags. It's stupid and shallow and unfortunate, but it's also human nature.

Very interesting article about this here:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=52418

[–] amit_slash2000 15 years ago

To be fair to the OP, Esposito had his womanizing ways. We see him initially, hitting on females from his workplace, with cliched lines. After seeing the body of that woman, probably he is intrigued by the question as who on earth could've done such a dastardly act of destroying such a beautiful woman? Initially, I guess, he was fascinated towards knowing more about her but yes, after he meets her husband, he is drawn towards his love and passion towards his wife.

It is such an engaging movie that once you know the characters you are drawn to know more about them.

------------------------------------
I'm not a hypocrite. If I criticize, I criticize the idea and not the person.

[–] dimagic 15 years ago

Thanks you , amit, for trying to understand my point of view, but I think algroth already answered my question in a decent manner. Doesn't mean I fully agree but now I understand better his, and similar point of view on things.

[–] psychozealot 8 years ago

What you say is Esposito hitting on women... Well, it seems that way at first glance, but it comes to be evident that he is just compensating for his unrequited love for Irene... It only happened on the opening scene, and both women it happene with were strangers to him, because he no longer worked there.

[–] algroth_1 15 years ago

Now someone here prove him wrong please...

Well, that's already proven with this thread, isn't it?

...

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] martytamu27 15 years ago

yep i agree, if it wasnt such a beautiful woman he may not have cared as much,...but he did see the photos in her room and was moved by the wonderful life she apparently had iwth her husband ended so brutally.

but like on CNN...the only time you hear a a missing girl or murdered girl is when she is beautiful and young and white...otherwise its not newsworthy...so to speak.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] lildark 14 years ago

Well, it's no news that beautiful people get a better treatment than ugly people in life (or in this case case, in death). It's not fair, but it's how things are. It doesn't make Esposito a douche, it merely makes him human. But your remark very much reminded me of one of my family members, who is a GP. When I was a teen, he once told me how a very beautiful woman with a nasty cut on her otherwise perfect face was brought to the emergencies at the hospital where he was an intern many years before. He explained very proudly how he really went out of his way to ensure that the suture would be as perfect as possible. I looked at him in shock and asked "you mean you wouldn't have tried as hard had she been ugly?" He seemed taken by surprise -- obviously, this question had never occurred to him before -- and he admitted he probably wouldn't have. I felt quite hurt at the time, because I'm a really ugly female, and as a teen I hadn't gotten over it yet. I think my parent realized why I was asking, too, and felt embarrassed.