Everybody Has a Plan – Film Review

Making his fourth Spanish language film, Viggo Mortensen plays identical twin brothers, an old stock situation for a thriller plot, and a slightly creaky one too. But, never mind, Viggo’s just the man to give it credibility and authority, and make it seem fresh again. Though this is the first time he’s made a movie in Argentina, Viggo was brought up in there and speaks fluent Spanish with an Argentine accent, so that’s a big help for this role.

Viggo plays paediatrician Agustin, a townie living in Buenos Aires with his lovely wife (Soledad Villamil), who upsets her by telling her he doesn’t want to adopt a baby after all. After they’ve clashed, he’s left alone, increasingly depressed. Then, with the wife away, he is visited by his beekeeper brother Pedro, who has terminal cancer. Later, Agustin assumes Pedro’s identity, going to live in his waterfront shack. But taking on someone else’s identity comes at a price. On the plus side, he starts a thing with a young bee farmer (Sofia Gala Castiglione); on the minus he’s confronted by a lot of scarily dodgy, violent locals his crooked brother was mixed up with.

Viggo’s excellent, differentiating the two characters skilfully (the two brothers have little screen time together, but what there is, is expertly done. It’s essential that he can persuade you he is both brothers and that the other characters could accept Agustin as Pedro. And he does, no problem at all. Villamil and Castiglione are ideal as the two women in the story, and Daniel Fanego makes a scary, if rather stock villain.

Filming in Argentina’s Tigre Delta island region, writer-director Ana Piterbarg makes a lovely job of the mounting tension and the eerie, unsettling atmosphere, so the far-fetched plot and thinly-sketched characters seem plausible and credible against this startling, bleak and unusual background. Just as well Piterbarg can distract our attention, because she keeps the slow-moving yarn going on far too long in a film that runs, or rather sometimes meanders. to nearly two hours when a taut, brisk 90 minutes would do nicely. So it ends up more of an art movie than a mystery thriller, annoyingly so because there’s a very good thriller indeed buried not too far down here, just waiting to be dug up.

Still, it remains very watchable and you easily forgive its faults. And, luckily, Viggo’s one of those actors who can recite the phone book and keep you interested. The longer we’re in his company the better, even if he slightly outstays his welcome here.

(C) Derek Winnert 2013