El secreto de sus ojos (2009)

Not as good as I thought it would be, because I had expected a serial killer story. "The Secrets in Their Eyes" is about a retired Argentinian federal justice agent Benjamín Espósito, who is writing a book about an old case, where a beautiful young woman was raped and brutally murdered. It seems the case possessed him then that he and his assistant Sandoval followed a lead, against their boss's advice. Meanwhile, Espósito fell in love with his new department chief Irene Hastings, but stood back as she was out of his reach.

They could catch the killer eventually, thanks to Espósito's sharp eyes; but the killer was free because he had been working for the government as an informant. The release of the killer made Espósito's life in danger, especially after Sandoval had been killed. Espósito decided to leave: leave the city, his work, and Irene.

20 years later, he is back, and finds that the thing that haunts his life for the last 20 years, was actually taken care of then. It's very sad, really.

The scenes move back and forth, with the same cast, but with the superb make-up, we won't have any difficulty to tell if the scene is telling the recent time or the past.

Los ojos de Julia (2010)

The name Guillermo del Toro made me want to watch this. This is one of the scariest movies I have seen. [I haven't seen many, though, as I don't like to be scared.] One of the scariest things in life is darkness, and this is what the movie explores.

Julia (wonderfully played by Belén Rueda) cannot believe that her twin sister, Sara, who is blind, committed suicide by hanging. She believes there is someone else in that room when Sara is dying. No one believes her, so Julia tries to investigate herself, sometimes helped by her husband Isaac. The problem is, like Sara, Julia suffers neurodegenerative disease and is going blind.

The movie is presented in pale colour and we often can't see faces of the people. Pictures are often out of focus. This is to make us understand what is Julia going through. The story reminds me to Patrick Süskind's Perfume. If the baddie in Perfume doesn't have smell, this one doesn't have light. He always becomes a shadow that people don't realize his presence.