Everybody Knows is one of those movies that feels like it should either be a bit trashier or a bit more intellectual or maybe just a better mixture of both elements. Asghar Farhadi's script presents a kidnapping drama that unleashes a whole barrage of long-kept family secrets and animosities between loved ones that would feel right at home at a delightfully bizarre soap opera, but they never quite go full-on over-the-top with these plot revelations. Meanwhile, Farhadi keeps much of the supporting cast as thinly-defined caricatures and the overall plot very basically defined, so there's not much thematic heft to be found either. Read between the lines of Everybody Knows and you'll find blank space.
Luckily, the lines themselves are a reasonably enjoyable experience, especially since the two lead actors are giving their respective performances their all. Penelope Cruz as a woe begotten mother is absolutely perfect for such anguish-soaked role, especially in regards to her piercing eyes that are capable of communicating such sorrow. Javier Bardem, for his part, opens the film doing a believable version of a Fun Uncle before handling the emerging complexities of his role nicely. Any of the big emotional moments that his character has to go through, Bardem is able to handle them like a champ, particularly in regards to capturing how his character is so frustrated over how Laura's family still won't accept him as an equal after all these years.
Though they may not be all that complex as human beings, the ensemble cast tasked with portraying the numerous family members assembled for this big wedding equip themselves well to their respective parts while the actors cast in the roles of the eventual kidnappers lend some unexpected but welcome depth to these crucial figures. Instead of portraying them as all-known malevolent forces, they choose to portray these kidnappers as more vulnerable out-of-their-element individuals, a great example of how Farhadi's script tends to soar the most when concentrated on its most down-to-Earth human elements.
This acclaimed writer/director seems to recognize this, hence why the screenplay makes the decision to put the hostage situation as an element sometimes even relegated to the background in favor of concentrating how the family reacts to this sudden crime taking place. Usually, hostage dramas opt to focus on the ticking clock of whether or not the person being held captive will be rescued, but for Everybody Knows, its central focus tends to be more on how exactly a sprawling family responds to an outpouring of secrets emerging in the wake of this kidnapping rather than the kidnapping itself. Its a bold move on a storytelling level and one that Farhadi's screenplay commits to in a thorough fashion.
Even in the third act it doesn't abruptly become a more generic hostage drama, it sticks with its own take on this subgenre until the very end. As said earlier, it'd be a dream come true if Everybody Knows managed to wring more insightful characters or drama, but at least the actors themselves bring some personality and nuance to the proceedings. Meanwhile, the lack of character depth as written on the page is compensated for by an evocative melancholy atmosphere found in Farhadi's consistently noteworthy direction. It's an atmosphere that emphasizes how, no matter what happens with this kidnapping, nothing will ever be the same for this family now that all these secrets are out, now that...Everybody Knows.
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