Everything on the table (2021)

Directed by: Will Koopman | 102 minutes | comedy, drama | Actors: Linda de Mol, Peter Paul Muller, Lies Visschedijk, Ramsey Nasr, Eva Crutzen, Waldemar Torenstra, Diederik Ebbinge, Aiko Beemsterboer, Bart de Vries, Elsje de Wijn, Lucas Karagozoglu, Olivia Karagozoglu, Hugo Koolschijn, Femke Lakerveld, Sandra Mattie , Lykele Muus, Jorrit Ruijs, Pepijn Schoneveld, Rik van de Westelaken, Wil van der Meer, Simone Weimans, Marieke Westenenk

If you have the impression that you have seen this film before, when watching ‘Alles optafel’ (2021) by Will Koopman, then that may be correct. You may have seen the Italian original, ‘Perfetti sconosciuti’ (2016) by Paolo Genovese. Or ‘Le jeu’ (2018) by Fred Cavayé, the French version that was shown in Dutch theaters just like the Italian one. Or maybe Alex de la Iglesia’s ‘Perfectos desconocidos’ from 2017, which can be seen on Netflix. Chinese, Russian, Polish, Vietnamese, Turkish, Mexican, Korean and Greek versions of the story are also circulating. So many versions (there are now at least twenty) of one film. It earned Genovese, who co-wrote the screenplay with four others, an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. The story about a group of friends who decides to put their mobile phones on the table during a dinner and to read everything that comes in aloud is apparently extremely universal. Another advantage: the stage-like setting makes this a perfect film to shoot during a lockdown.

If you say Will Koopman, you automatically say Linda de Mol. The two previously made the films ‘Back to the coast’ (2009) and ‘April, May and June’ (2019) and the TV series “Everyone loves Jack”, “Divorce” and “Familie Kruys”. But the most successful exponent of their collaboration is of course “Gooische Vrouwen”, the series that kept millions of Dutch people glued to the tube for years and from which two equally lucrative feature films resulted. De Mol and Koopman also frequently collaborate with screenwriter Frank Houtappels and composer Jeroen Rietbergen (De Mol’s life partner). For the Dutch remake of ‘Perfetti sconosciuti’, which was given the title ‘Alles optafel’ (2021), they are all present again (Houtappels adapted the original screenplay with a Dutch sauce). Plus actor Peter Paul Muller, who still knows De Mol from her “Gooische women” time. In ‘Everything on the table’ they play husband and wife again.

Margot (Linda de Mol) is a successful psychologist who is married to Vincent (Peter Paul Muller), who earns his living as a plastic surgeon. On the evening when the Netherlands is under the spell of the upcoming lunar eclipse, they invite a number of friends to join them for dinner. Macho Thomas (Waldemar Torenstra) comes with his much younger girlfriend Fenna (Eva Crutzen), drinking organ Charlotte (Lies Visschedijk) has brought her neurotic husband Marco (Ramsey Nasr) and outsider Ben (Diederik Ebbinge) is supposed to bring his new girlfriend, but stands in are one at the door. After we have been able to get to know everyone, the first courses have been eaten and the wine is flowing freely, Margot proposes to play a game. Everyone puts their phone on the table and every call, text message, email or Facebook response must be discussed out loud with the others. Of course, this leads to the necessary uncomfortable situations. Because why doesn’t Vincent tell his wife that he has been seeing a psychologist for six months? How well do the friends actually know each other? And how well do the couples know their partner?

The premise of ‘Everything on the table’ is interesting and provocative: we have become so closely connected with our mobile phone that our entire lives revolve around it. Whoever has access to our smartphone has access to our greatest secrets. But do you really want to know the secrets of your friends, if that could have major consequences for your mutual understanding? Is this a game that you also want to play with your best friends, or on reflection rather not? ‘Everything on the table’ is set in a stylish penthouse with a view of the skyline of Amsterdam; only a few scenes were shot outside (with the streets in the capital, which had died out due to the lockdown, evoking a uniquely alienating atmosphere), giving the film the setting of a play. So everything depends on the acting, and that’s all right, because with Nasr, Visschedijk and Torenstra in particular, ‘Alles optafel’ has a number of top actors in-house. And then the young Aiko Beemsterboer, one of the greatest talents we have in the Netherlands, also has a small role as the teenage daughter of Vincent and Margot. She also plays a pivotal role in one of the film’s most moving and painful moments, during a telephone conversation with her father.

‘Everything on the table’ skillfully builds up the tension and we have to wait for the climax. But that’s where it goes wrong. Because just when you wonder how the film will ever manage to escape from the plight that has been created, they decide, like a cat in a corner, to make a very strange jump. A jump that suddenly casts everything that has gone before in a completely different light and is a huge anticlimax. As a viewer you feel a bit cheated. Anyone who has seen ‘Perfetti sconosciuti’ (or one of the eighteen other versions) will of course know which trick conjures the scenario out of the top hat and will be less surprised. But even then it remains a waste of all that time and energy that has been invested in carefully building up the tension and sharpening the mutual relationships. We have to wait for the first remake that dares to throw overboard the major stumbling block in the scenario and that the viewer dares to give the viewer an ending that is more satisfying.