Everybody Knows

Laura returns from Argentina to her Spanish hometown for her sister's wedding. Her teenage daughter Irene disappears that night and a ransom demand follows. While the family tries to raise 300,000 euros, the question of who fathered whom opens up. It is Asghar Farhadi's first Spanish-language film, and he does here what he does in Iran: the subject is not the crime but the family lies the crime exposes. The ransom is a pretext, not a thriller device. Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Ricardo Darín star. It opened the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. Reviews split. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 78 percent with a blunt consensus: the cast is strong but the film is a disappointing step back for Farhadi. Metacritic gave it 68. It was nominated for Best Film and Best Director at the 33rd Goya Awards, and grossed 19.2 million dollars worldwide on an 11.8 million budget. Who it is for: viewers who like dramas where family secrets surface slowly. Who it is not for: anyone expecting Farhadi at the level of A Separation. The mechanics are the same and the tension is not.