Everybody Has A Plan, 2012
Directed by Ana Piterbarg.
Starring Viggo Mortensen, Viggo Mortensen, Soledad Villamil, Daniel Fanego, and Sofía Gala.
| “I’m seeing double – four Viggo Mortensens!” |
Everybody Has A Plan is a lot like Twins. Only instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, it’s just two Viggo Mortensens. And it’s in Spanish. That’s right! Because this film is…
VIGGO MORTENSEN!
IN!
VIGGO MORTENSEN!
SPEAKS!
SPANISH!
And really rather well, actually. He’s an oddly versatile actor. Rather than simply playing largely similar characters throughout his career, as many big name actor are wont to do, he plays largely similar characters in different languages. He speaks no less than seven. English (obviously), Spanish (his dialect of choice here), Italian, Danish, French, Norwegian and Elvish.
It’s the Viggo Mortensen show for the first hour. Unfortunately, that makes for a slow, televisual (albeit high-end) and strained melodrama.
The film is about Argentinean twin brothers Agustín and Pedro (both Mortensen); the former good, the latter bad. Agustín is a pediatrician in Buenos Aires, who’s not having the best of times with his wife. Pedro makes honey back in the rural area in which they both grew up (where for some reason everyone gets around by boat). Oh, and he’s involved in a murder.
So the estranged brothers reunite. This is really where the Viggo-fest gets going. The film seems to become awkwardly self-aware every time the two Viggos share the same shot, as though the superimposition will rip reality to shreds if the handheld camera moves too much. But it doesn’t. And for reasons that would be too spoilery to mention, Agustín the Good must return home masquerading as his sibling.
The film continues at a very slow pace, which manages to fall just the wrong side of Paul Thomas Anderson-interesting (i.e. pedestrian). Mortensen is impressive, but Agustín’s life choices make him unlikeable. They aren’t meaty, tortured decisions, either. More annoying, ‘just grow-up’ choices.
That said, the movie does pick up in its final third. The love story that arises between Agustín and Rosa (Sofía Gala Castiglione), as morally complicated as it may be, humanises the protagonist and briefly makes him likeable.
There’s a much better film in here than the final product, but fans of Mortensen should like it. Simply because there’s twice as much Mortensen in it than a usual Mortensen movie.
Mortensen Mortensen Mortensen.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★
Oliver Davis is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors. You can follow him on Twitter @OliDavis.
Originally published September 23, 2013. Updated November 28, 2022.
