Everybody Knows: A Fantastic Puzzle of a Story | Review


Asghar Farhadi's latest cinematic venture brings us to Everybody Knows. It follows mother, Laura, and her community after the disappearance of her daughter, Irene, at a family wedding. Secrets fall out, plot twists occur and it earns its 133 minute run time.

Penelope Cruz carries the burden of Laura with wonderful clarity and she meshed with her family in a way that felt real. Farhadi did a fantastic job of making the world feel alive with beautifully vibrant blends of colours and music. You felt like you were there with them in the Spanish heat. Farhadi gave enough character and personality to Irene before her disappearance so the audience had a chance to root for her return. It allowed us to invest in the plot from an early stage and aided the otherwise lengthy set up.

The hook of the narrative is in the thrill of piecing together the mystery alongside them. I love that every new piece of information presented more complications than answers and threw everything you thought you knew out the window. This is what aided the 133 minute run time, although, some moments I felt passed too long without anything productive happening and so it could've done with gaining momentum in certain parts.

Javier Bardem was strong in his role of Paco, a childhood friend of Laura who grew up beside her family. The relationship between the two was definitely a strength in this film and not only were you piecing together the jigsaw of the kidnap, you were uncovering their relationship. You could see the years in the way Bardem and Cruz played off one another and it added a little something extra to a narrative that can easily go wrong if not done well.

As the case most frequently is with films like these the reveal and the ending were slightly unsatisfactory in my opinion as I felt the film was presenting the idea of a sequel more than it was closing the story of this one. It was adding to the questions instead of solving the ones you had spent the film asking but I know others felt differently and it provided a little more information for them.

Overall, Everybody Knows is a great medium film for cinema-goers. It has romance, thrill and mystery and you have fun getting lost in the narrative.



Everybody Knows comes to UK cinemas 8th March 2019.

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