Susan Granger’s review of “Everybody Knows” (Memento Films)
Those who admire Iranian filmmaker Ashgar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning “The Salesman” and “The Separation,” may discover his first foray in Spanish isn’t quite up to the high standards he’s set for himself. Nevertheless, it’s intriguing.
For many years, Laura (Penelope Cruz) has lived in Buenos Aires, but now she’s back in her hometown, outside Madrid, for the wedding of her younger sister, Ana (Irma Cuesta), to Joan (Roger Casamajor).
Accompanying Laura are her teenage daughter, Irene (Carla Campra) and younger son, Diego (Ivan Chavero), while their Argentinian father, Alejandro (Ricardo Darin) remains at home. They’re staying on the estate of Laura’s aging, alcoholic father, Antonio (Ramon Barea).
While the nuptial mass is underway, rebellious Irene sneaks up to the church’s belfry with Felipe (Sergio Castellanos), who tells her that his Uncle Paco (Javier Bardem) was Laura’s childhood sweetheart.
That’s assumed to be common knowledge – but isn’t. Paco is now a successful local vintner, married to childless Bea (Barbara Lennie).
During the wine-drenched reception, there’s a thunderstorm and power outage. Irene has been kidnapped and the ransom text has specific instructions not to go to the police.
Desperate, Laura turns to her family and shaggy, sympathetic Paco. Yet, when a retired detective (Jose Angel Egido) starts investigating, everyone’s a suspect, including Alejandro, who appears unexpectedly.
Apparently, Ashgar Farhadi wrote the original draft in Farsi, which was later translated into Spanish, then English. So it shouldn’t be surprising that much of the whodunit melodrama, which he directed using interpreters, gets muddled, as if caught in a magician’s misdirection.
Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar’s longtime cinematographer, Jose Luis Alcvaine, sublimely captures the bucolic appeal of Torrelaguna, a small village north of Madrid.
FYI: Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem have been married since 2010; this marks their fifth collaboration after “Jamon, Jamon” (1992), “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (2008), “The Counselor” (2013) and “Loving Pablo” (2017).
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Everybody Knows” is a secretive 7. As Farhadi says, “Everything you see within the frame helps you envision what exists out of it.”
