REVIEW: I Know What “Everybody Knows”
If you’re anything like me and most of society, then I’m sure you enjoy some juicy drama every now and then. Especially family drama that involves years of deceit and hidden secrets.
Everybody Knows is film that embodies all of these characteristics and will keep those even with the shortest attention span entertained throughout the movie.
The film follows Laura (Penélope Cruz) on her travels from Argentina to her small home town in Spain for her sister’s wedding, bringing her two children along for the occasion. Amid the joyful reunion and festivities, the eldest daughter is abducted. In the tense days that follow, various family and community tensions surface and secrets are revealed.
Directed by Asghar Farhadi, the movie is built around the kidnapping of Laura’s daughter and, as family members search for help and comfort from one another, the audience starts to learn that there are hidden motives that causes dark family history to service. It’s a big family / cast, so it gets difficult remembering who is who is the beginning of the film. Was this a way to keep the audience on their toes? Or was this just poor directing skills?
Either way, you start to become an investigator yourself; why was the teenage girl kidnapped? Who’s involved and who isn’t? What kind of hidden secrets does this family have that would lead to such tragic events. Farhadi does a great job at keeping the suspense suspenseful, but overall the nature of the movie seemed over-plotted once the drama concluded.
I gathered that the theme was not about the kidnapping itself but more about families, buried resentments, and how these secrets bind and tear the people who share them. Even though I wasn’t rewarded with the unexpected twist I was looking for at the end, I subconsciously snacked through my theater popcorn whispering “Oh’s” and “Ah’s” and “No He Didn’t” during the movie and everybody knows that popcorn and drama goes well together.
Everybody Knows premieres in theaters on Feb. 22.
