EVERYBODY KNOWS – Review

Penélope Cruz stars as Laura and Javier Bardem as Paco in Asghar Farhadi’s EVERYBODY KNOWS, a Focus Features release. Photo credit: Teresa Isasi/Focus Features

Penelope Cruz plays a Spanish-born woman who returns with her two children to the rural Spanish village where she grew up for her younger sister’s wedding. Among those who greet her are her childhood friend Paco (Javier Bardem), now the owner of a successful vineyard and winery. But this joyful family event is disrupted by a crime that brings to the surface long-simmering resentments and suspicions, ripping away the pleasant veneer of the modern world to reveal old class divides, in the gripping psychological thriller EVERYBODY KNOWS.

While the Spanish thriller/drama EVERYBODY KNOWS (Todos lo Saben) was not nominated for an Oscar, it did win the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year. The film seems deeply Spanish, and it features two of Spain’s biggest stars, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. However, it actually was written and directed by Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, whose past films include the Oscar-winning films A SEPARATION and THE SALESMAN. Like those dramas, a family crisis is used to reveal deeper divisions and issues within that society and provide social commentary, as the drama also explores complexities of human relationships.

Penelope Cruz plays Laura, the woman returning to her family’s little village for her sister Ana’s (Inma Cuesta) wedding. Laura’s businessman husband Alejando (Ricardo Darin) is a model of globalized affluence who has donated generously to the restoration of the village’s historic church but he has not come on this trip, with Laura saying he needed to remain in Buenos Aires due to business. As Laura and her children, teenage daughter Irene (Carla Campra) and young son Diego (Ivan Chavero), arrive at the small inn owned by her older sister Mariana (Elvira Minguez) and her husband Fernando, they are also greeted by her childhood friend and former love Paco (Javier Bardem), now one of the town’s most prosperous citizens along with his wife Bea (Barbara Lennie). As they all celebrate the wedding into the night, a tragic event strikes, sending the family into a morass of secrets, long-hidden resentments and accusations as they struggle to rescue one of their own.

The crime is the kidnapping of Irene, and the kidnapper leave threatening clippings about an earlier kidnapping that ended badly when the family broke the instructions not to contact police. The instructions means the family must try to figure out on their own how to get her back alive.

Secrets are exposed and the past comes back to haunt everyone in the crime/psychological thriller EVERYBODY KNOWS. It is a big cast, which provides plenty of room for intrigue. The title suggests gossip, and that does play a role, as the accusations fly. Red herrings abound, as do secrets and shifting suspicions. The film seems a pot boiler with a dash of soap opera, at least on the surface.

This complex film works on several levels. On the surface, it is a crime thriller, a mystery to be solved. At times the twisty plot verges on soap opera, as family secrets and long-buried resentments boil up. But beneath that the drama explores the impact of old class divides, the resentments and lingering attitudes of privilege even as fortunes are reversed. Past romantic history emerges as well as cracks in veneers of prosperity. “Everybody knows” becomes a reoccurring refrain, as assumptions that “everybody knows” are exploded or nearly forgotten events of the past come to light.

At first, everything looks the idealized picture of a modern globalized world. When Laura returns to her family’s ancient estate home for the wedding, she is the picture of affluence from abroad, the success story in her once wealthy family. Her older sister and her husband are just getting by running a little inn in the rural village but the wine-growing region which is bustling. Laura’s childhood friend and youthful love Paco was the son of the family servant, but now owns a prosperous winery. When impulsive teenage Irene takes off with a cute local boy on a motorcycle, her mother is not overly worried, as everyone knows everyone in the village. The whole town seems to turn out for the wedding and the wine-fueled, dance-filled celebration that follows. As the celebration goes on into the night, the festivities take a dark turn, when Irene goes missing.

Forbidden by the kidnappers to contact police, the family is forced to figure out what to do on their own. Fernando secretly contacts an old friend, a retired policeman (Jose Angel Egido), who offers some advice but also unleashes secrets and suspicions.

The events of the film rip away the thin layer of modern social equality to reveal deep class divisions rooted in ancient aristocracy. Laura’s aging father (Ramon Barea), once the local patrone and major landholder, drunkenly rails that everyone in the village, claiming they owe him and implying he was swindled out of the land, although everyone knows he lost it gambling it away. While the family treats Paco almost like a member, the old patriarch lashes out to remind everyone it was not always so. In the end, it seems like Paco who pays to biggest price.

The plot is full of twists and with so many characters and switch backs it is easy to lose track. The director uses a familiar formula of doling out information in pieces, building suspense and doubt.

With all its twists and subtext, EVERYBODY KNOWS reaches a satisfying but poignant conclusion. Not everybody will like this very twisty thriller but fans of complicated psychological thrillers will be onboard for this wild ride. EVERYBODY KNOWS, in Spanish with English subtitles,opens Friday, February 22, at the Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars