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Secret in Their Eyes | 2015 | PG-13 | - 3.5.5
A counter terrorist team on high alert after 9/11 is called to the scene of a brutal murder and they discover that the victim is the teenage daughter of one of them. They are forced to choose between investigating the murder or pursuing the terrorists. With Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Dean Norris, Alfred Molina, Joe Cole, Michael Kelly and Zoe Graham. Directed by Billy Ray. [1:51]
SEX/NUDITY 3 - A man kisses a woman on the cheek. A man and a woman hug.
► A young man stares at a woman when she bends over and her blouse opens to reveal cleavage and part of her bra (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man grabs a woman by the arm while they argue and her blouse opens to reveal cleavage and part of her bra.
► A teen girl is found dead in a dumpster and we understand that she was raped and murdered (we see her legs to the lower buttocks). A woman wears a top and tight-fitting exercise pants that reveal cleavage and bare abdomen. A large poster of a close-up of a woman's deep cleavage is seen hanging on a wall. Women wear low-cut dresses that reveal bare backs and cleavage.
► A man and a woman smile at each other and seem to flirt in several scenes and it is apparent that the man is interested in the woman romantically but she is engaged to another man. A husband comes home to find his wife talking with another man and holding hands; he makes a remark about moving the other man in and goes upstairs to bed.
► A woman tells a man that he should have asked her to go with him when he left town and implies that she would have ended her engagement to another man to join him. A woman is referred to as a stripper.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - We see flashbacks to a teen girl being attacked and we hear heavy blows as she screams and struggles; one such scene shows her with blood on her mouth and she lays either dead or unconscious as her assailant pours bleach through a plastic tube (we understand that the body is washed inside and out with bleach).
► A man looks into a dumpster and sees a teen girl dead (she is seen lying on her stomach with no visible injuries or blood); her mother sees the teen dead, climbs into the dumpster and screams uncontrollably as she cradles the body in her arms.
► A woman hits a man over the head with a baton, then shoves him into the trunk of a car and shoots into the trunk several times (we do not see the victim being shot). A man following a car thief is punched in the face, he falls unconscious and when he awakens is punched and kicked several more times before other people with guns show up and gunfire is exchanged; one man is struck and we see blood pooling under him before he is pronounced dead. We hear a gunshot and see a flash in a window from outside (we do not see a victim or blood).
► A woman goads a young man by insinuating that he is not strong enough to have committed a murder and that he is not well endowed; the young man becomes angry and hits the woman hard in the face, and another man in the room slams the young man into a bookshelf and then punches him repeatedly on the floor (we see him with a bloody nose and swollen eye. A man presses a barbell against another man's throat as he lies on a lifting bench, then lets him up and they argue, and then he punches him in the nose (we see blood on his nose and a cut across the bridge of the nose).
► A man chases a young man through a horse barn and when he turns the corner, the young man hits him hard in the stomach and he falls to the ground moaning. Two men run out of a house when the homeowner returns unexpectedly; they are chased by the homeowner's dog that apparently bites one of the men on the leg and we hear the animal yelp and then see it thrown through the air (suggesting that the man kicked the dog). Two men chase a young man through a crowded baseball stadium; the young man jumps over a railing and lands on the ground unharmed, and another man jumps after him and hurts his leg before another man grabs the young man and presses him to the ground to cuff him.
► We see a van in flames on a street corner and there are quick cuts of a man throwing a lighted flare into the van to set it ablaze. A woman with a handgun pounds on the mirror in an elevator until the mirror shatters. A woman yells at a man and hits him in the chest several times.
► We hear people talking about a teen girl having been raped and murdered in many scenes. People argue in several scenes. A man tells a woman, "Let's kill him" and she declines. A man stands in front of a door blocking another man from passing; they speak harshly to each other and then he moves aside. A man tells another man, "You're like a rash." A woman talks about another woman dying a little bit every time there is a reported sighting of a murder suspect. A woman asks a man, "Are you going to waterboard him?" A woman says that she killed a man and buried him in the yard.
► We see pages of a comic book with illustrations of violence; one shows a man's face (presumably yelling) and a woman gagged as he says something about being "the monster."
► A man says, "I'm gonna go water that bush," and we see him from the back as he presumably urinates against a fence (no urine or flesh is seen). A man is shown in a cage with food on a tray passed in to him. A man in a hallway is shown carrying an empty urine sample container.
LANGUAGE 5 - At least 1 F-word, 3 sexual references, 6 scatological terms, 10 anatomical terms, 15 mild obscenities, name-calling (moron, imbecile, idiot, rapist, murderer, crazies, noodles for arms, cocky, loser, liar), 4 religious profanities (GD), 9 religious exclamations (e.g. Christ, God, Oh God, Oh My God, Amen, Jesus, I Swear to God, Jesus Christ).
SUBSTANCE USE - People are shown drinking alcohol in a bar, and we see a bottle of wine and a glass on a table (no one drinks).
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Murder, the death penalty, counter terrorism, unrequited love, death of a child, obsession, guilt, homeland security, surveillance, illegal searches, ambition, justice.
MESSAGE - Obsession is not healthy and can keep you from living your life.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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