Author: Eric Kohn / Source: IndieWire
There’s a twist that arrives an hour into “Everybody Knows” that wouldn’t feel out of place in a telenovela. However, under the guidance of Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi, it’s just another piece of a beguiling puzzle. As with all the riveting dramas he’s produced over the past decade — “A Separation,” “The Past,” and “The Salesman” — Farhadi’s first Spanish-language feature explores fissures of family bonds as they threaten to fall apart.
New cracks keep appearing in unexpected places, some more resonant than others, but they’re mere vessels for a fascinating deep-dive into the perils of hidden information.Upping the ante with the explosive star power of Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz as his leads, Farhadi has also found the most accessible genre for his heady storytelling to date — the suspenseful mold of a kidnapping thriller. As usual, Farhadi builds his dilemma around a sudden inciting incident: Shortly after Laura (Cruz) arrives from Argentina to visit to her family at their Spanish estate for a wedding, her teen daughter Irene (Carla Campra) vanishes from her room in the dead of night. That leaves a frantic Laura at the mercy of Paco (Bardem), who oversees the family vineyard and was romantically involved with Irene ages ago. Local incidents suggest they can’t go to the police, lest the kidnappers kill Irene right away — and they’re not equipped to shell out any ransom, at least not in the immediate future. As the ensemble of relatives linger in the estate, Farhadi pushes the material into Agatha Christie territory — everyone’s a suspect, and everyone suspects someone else.
It’s a taut setup that risks veering into soapy territory, but Farhadi reveals just enough involving details to pause at individual moments and rest on more intimate observations.
Within the confines of this familiar scenario, the filmmaker mines remarkable observations about the impact of class and status under dire circumstances. Initially, Paco suspects…The post ‘Everybody Knows’ Review: Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz Star in Riveting Kidnapping Thriller — Cannes 2018 appeared first on FeedBox.