This film premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival. In fact, it opened the 71st Cannes Festival and competed for the Palme d'Or. It was nominated for eight Goya Awards, including Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Film. Asghar Farhadi is the writer-director. Farhadi is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker. Two of his previous features won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He's a celebrated and a very well-regarded, Iranian artist. This film doesn't seem to be as celebrated or as well-regarded. Farhadi's most regarded film is
A Separation (2011), but before that Oscar-winner, Farhadi made a film called
About Elly, which follows a group of people who gather for an occasion or special event when all of a sudden one of the people mysteriously disappears.
This film is basically a Spanish version of
About Elly. Maybe, it's why people didn't take to this film because of so many echoes to
About Elly. I took to it because I thought this film took those echoes and made it better. At least, I feel like this is a more thrilling and emotionally wrought version of
About Elly. It might come across as more of a telenovela than a hard-hitting drama, which has been the tone of Farhadi's Oscar-winning works. It could be seen as more of a soap opera, but I appreciate soap operas, probably more than the average critic. Yes, what ultimately happens in this film could be a plot in
The Young and the Restless or
Days of Our Lives, but that almost makes me love it more because the way Farhadi handles it is superb.
Penélope Cruz (
Vicky Cristina Barcelona and
Volver) stars as Laura, a woman who is from a town outside Madrid, Spain. She and her family owned farm land there. She left to start her life over with her husband in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She did and had two children. Her daughter, Irene is 16 and her son, Diego is probably 8 or 9. She returns to her hometown because her sister, Ana is getting married. She and her family seem very happy and very content.
Javier Bardem (
No Country for Old Men and
Before Night Falls) co-stars as Paco. He now owns much if not all the farm land that Laura's family used to possess. That land is a grape vineyard that provides for wine-makers. Paco is himself a wine connoisseur. His girlfriend or fiancée is Bea, a teacher in the local town. She lives with Paco and also helps him run the vineyard. Paco is a hard worker, toiling the fields with his farm-hands, but he too seems very happy and very content.
All that changes during the night of Ana's wedding, which Paco and his family also attend. Before the inciting incident even happens that changes the status quo, it must be said that Farhadi puts together a wedding ceremony and reception that feels pretty incredible. Farhadi's film essentially takes over the town of Torrelaguna, which is about a hour north of Madrid in central Spain. It's a beautiful town with Gothic architecture and Farhadi makes great use of it, but in particular in how he wields the tons of people who attend the wedding and reception. It seems like hundreds and somehow Farhadi is able to cover them all effectively to give us such an immersive sense of place.
This sense of place is perhaps helpful when the mystery kicks in that changes things. A rain storm starts and there's a power outage in the town. Laura's daughter, Irene becomes sick out of the blue. Laura puts her to bed, but when Laura goes to check on Irene after the power comes back on, Irene has disappeared. Laura goes into a panic, desperate and afraid. The person she reaches for help is Paco. He is pulled into Laura's desperation to find her daughter, much to the chagrin of Bea but not to the surprise of everyone else.
The reason it's of no surprise to everyone else is because the entire town has known or has assumed something that Laura and Paco hadn't thought or wouldn't think the town would assume. It's in a way been an open secret, one that would have persisted if not for Irene's disappearance. Now, that secret is destined to come out and upend Laura and Paco's lives. The past, especially their past, comes exploding back, bringing up old grudges and regrets, even some doubts. Bárbara Lennie who plays Bea, probably best exemplifies this. Bea is in love with Paco but now she starts to doubt him due to the secret being revealed. Ricardo DarÃn plays Alejandro, the husband to Laura. His regrets about how he was, which this secret being revealed also revealed, is unnerving for him.
The mystery of what happened to Irene is solved with very little effort on behalf of the film. Farhadi is less concerned with being a twisty intrigue. Yet, there are suspects and red herrings that suggest the potential for a thriller, but thrills aren't really Farhadi's goal. It's more leaning toward that telenovela idea but not so melodramatic. It's quieter and more hushed, a vehicle for some strong performances from Cruz, Bardem and DarÃn.
Rated R for language.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 12 mins.
Available on DVD / VOD.
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