In any other movie, people usually tear apart such subplots for being filled with melodrama and soap-opera elements. I really don't know what makes this one unique. Do people just naturally latch onto love stories?
shareI usually don't like when a film is filled with unnecessary romantic sub-plots.
But, in this case is very well made and constructed. Is not cheesy at all, we even didn't see them kissing or saying "I love you". Is a complicated relation.
Is as 'pro' as the thriller factor.
There are some minor spoilers in this comment:
One thing people hate about subplots in movies is that they exist only because the movie is supposed to have a subplot, or because they need to make the movie longer, not because the subplots relate to, or even add to the essence of the main story line. The love angle in The Secret in the Eyes is vastly different because, honestly, I don't even see it as a subplot at all. The whole film was about a man who is living in regret (about Irene), and finally dealing with it by rehashing a criminal investigation case on which he had worked closely with her. Dealing with the case brings her back into his life and allows him to see in the murder story many elements of his own story with her. So if you take away the love story, the murder story loses much of its meaning. It loses it's importance to the main character. I mean, the bottom line of every story is that there is a protagonist who wants something very badly, but can't have it, and has to deal with the reason he can't have it. So what did Esposito want so badly? To find a killer that had been convicted and released from prison decades earlier? No. He wanted to connect with Irene. So in my mind, the love story is the main plot, and the story about the rapist/murderer is there to support that.
The brilliance here, IMO, is that the two stories are so interdependent and intertwined in meaning. Esposito learns much about dealing with his regret about Irene (the love story) from his conversations with the victim's husband (the murder story). And in the end, Esposito has to take what he's learned and choose whether to apply it to his love story. The two stories need each other desperately. Take one away, and the movie falls apart. That's great story writing.
When I was your age, television was called books!
Well said.
The film was all about love (and passion)... Morales' love for Liliana (the murdered girl) and Esposito's love for Irene. The revenge was motivated by love too, Morales still had her picture to remind him...
Brilliant film