Open Secret

After many years, Laura (Penélope Cruz) returns to her native Spanish village with her children for her sister's wedding from Buenos Aires. Not only her family, but also her former boyfriend Paco (Javier Bardem) are very happy about Laura's visit. And also her pretty teenage daughter Irena (Carla Campra) quickly finds an attachment in the small village. The mood is cheerful and nothing stands in the way of a wonderful wedding. But then, on the wedding night, a tragic event occurs that puts an abrupt end to the harmonious goings-on and brings dark secrets from the past back to the surface.

With Open Secret, Asghar Farhadi has directed a very atmospheric family drama that scores with very beautiful images and a great cast. At the beginning there is actually something like a family atmosphere, in which you also feel very comfortable as a viewer. Beautiful scenery, happy people - it's simply infectious. But - and this is also very well done by the filmmaker - subliminally sprinkle a sense of doom, so that you quickly suspect that the harmony in this place can not last.

What follows is suspenseful and stirring at its core. The actors, most notably Penélope Cruz, deliver very strong performances, leading to some pretty intense moments. However, Farhadi only manages to transfer this intensity to his staging to a limited extent. Again and again he loses himself in long, very tough scenes, through which only the already obvious is clarified once again. This makes the movie not bad, but unfortunately a bit boring. And that's a real damn shame with what is in itself such a strong story.

Open Secret once again shows where the lines are between (intentional) art cinema and (thoroughly challenging) entertainment cinema. This is best compared to the Oscar winner In Their Eyes, which also starred Richardo Darín. That thriller also relied on slowness throughout, but focused much more on what made the story so suspenseful and effective. Open Secret, on the other hand, repeatedly loses sight of the central plot in an effort to make artful feuilleton cinema, bloating the story, which could easily have been told in 90 minutes, to over 2 hours.

Whoever appreciates leisurely told, beautifully filmed and superbly acted art house cinema will definitely find Open Secret to be a very strong drama. For that audience, the film may also be absolutely worth watching. But if you expect intense, thrilling suspense cinema because of the story, you'll be transported into the realm of dreams by sometimes very tough boredom. And for that you really don't have to leave any money at the box office. Overall, there is therefore only one: Worth seeing with reservations

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp