Everybody's Fine

Everybody's Fine

Will Hollywood ever lose its fascination with mediocre remakes of classic foreign films? It seems that Tinseltown's execs would rather recast old scripts with English-speaking actors that read a single original screenplay. Clearly they have more faith in their translators than in their screenwriters.

Everybody's Fine is based on Italian movie Stanno Tutti Bene, a twenty-year old film that the producers presumably decided was antiquated enough for critics to have forgotten about its existence. In this day and age, though, no movie disappears forever.

Of course, the stellar cast that they lined up behind the English-language script would have helped too. With Robert De Niro taking the lead - and Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale on board as his kids - this promised to be one remake that might almost live up to the original.

Almost, but not quite. To borrow heavily from the movie's title, everybody's fine - but no-one shines.

A large part of the problem lies with the story itself. Frank (De Niro) is a recent widower who makes plans for his four children to visit him for the weekend. He buys a new grill, an expensive wine... and you just know that this isn't going to work out happily. When all of them cancel, he takes it upon himself to travel across the country to visit them, using old-fashioned trains and buses thanks to his troublesome heart condition.

Then every one of his children proceeds to greet him with disdain, anger, and the occasional moment of outright rudeness. Most people would treat complete strangers better than Frank's kids treat him, and we never quite get to the bottom of why they dislike him so much. It's one thing to feel a little distant from your father, but the lies and cold shoulders they heap upon him are tantamount to abuse.

All of which makes for a rather bleak movie, despite a strong central performance by De Niro (who proves that he can still do emotional heavyweights, as well as comedies) and the combined talents of Barrymore, Rockwell and Beckinsale. All their performances do justice to the original, but the muddled script manages to be both unbelievable and unrelentingly depressing in one heavy-hitting swoop.

One can only imagine that the original title was Everything Sucks, and the current title is a last minute homage to the Italian source material. Everybody's Fine may be filled with talent, but despite its European pedigree the end result is curiously charmless.

3/5

Everybody's Fine

Beautifully heart-warming yet poignant. Everybody's Fine is a family film everyone can relate to.

Frank Goode (Robert De Niro) is getting ready for his children to come visit him. He gets everything all set, goes out and buys a new grill, expensive champagne, and gets the backyard and house all ready. One by one, each of his children call to cancel on him. Feeling a bit down by the rejections, realising his only connection to his family was through his wife, he sets off on an impromptu road trip to reunite with each of his grown children.

Everybody's Fine is based on the Italian Giuseppe Tornatore film 1990 Stanno Tutti Bene. British Screenwriter and Director Kirk Jones took on the job of writing and directing, right from the go it develops its characters one by one by having Frank making a surprise visit to each of them. First off, he travels to New York City to visit his son David, only to be dropped off by the taxi and find no one home, after waiting a while he embarks upon the next part of his journey to visit his daughter Amy (Kate Beckinsale). Although pleased to see her dad she informs him it's bad time to visit. She had mentioned previously to frank in her phone call that her son Jack was sick and they weren't going to make the visit. Once he gets there, Frank realizes Jack wasn't sick and Amy was just making up an excuse. Frank then moves on to Denver to see Robert (Sam Rockwell) conducting an orchestra and begins to suddenly see that things arent what they seem with his Children, when Robert also tells Frank his timing is bad. Frank sees that perhaps the excuse of not coming to see him has a web of lies behind it. Finally Frank visits Rosie (Drew Barrymore) who lives in Las Vegas and appears to be doing okay for herself, but maybe everything isn't so perfect. 

Frank travels across a vast space from one side of America to the next and the true essence of the travelling is caught perfectly using some excellent cinematography. Director Kirk Jones mentioned in the Q&A I attended after the screening that he spent actually spent time on the road while writing, travelling from New York to Las Vegas via Greyhound Buses and trains and this helped him identify what its like to travel across the width of America by road and I think he's captured it absolutely spot on. It's just little details that make it so fulfilling, like the scenery he takes in while on the Greyhound buses and the people he encounters along the way and how the camera follows the pylons and telephone wires while he is travelling. Jones also incorporates some dream imagery,  he brings in dreamscapes imagining his sons and daughters as  small children and recalls conversations from the past, these scenes work brilliantly in context and helps maintain the flow of the film and is poignant but not sickly sweet.


Robert De Niro once again displays his diverse acting qualities, his performance is touching and moving as the caring widowed father, coming to terms with both the loss of his wife and finding out all is not as it seems with his children's lives. Other than Bob, performance-wise, out of all the supporting cast I have to say the most convincing part is Drew Barrymore as Rosie, she shares some of the best scenes in the film with De Niro. All the cast have a sense of genuine bond to each other, you can feel yourself actually believing they are all related despite no similar resemblances. It just goes to show what you can do with such a simplistic story and the right cast. Everybody's Fine is a beautifully shot family orientated film and I would defy anyone to sit through this film and not think of a loved one and want to give them a call.

Everybody's Fine goes on general release 26th Feb 2010.

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http://robinollysays.blogspot.com

Everybody's Fine

To be quite frank, this is not the type of movie I'd be looking forward to watching a seond time, since the bulk of it is ridden with the bitter taste of reality - that of children lying to their parents as a result of parents lying to their children, to each other, etc. - and, after all, isn't that the one thing we're all escaping when watching movies - reality, and the principal reason why movies are a trillion dollar industry?

But then, this movie certainly has its lessons to teach, the protruding one of which might be summed up in the sigh, "If people could only accept one another for who and what they are, instead of expecting them to reach some self-imposed standard of their living our own 'impossible dream,' this world might be a better place.

In a society where achievement is what defines you, rather than your character or other inner values, the way to reach that goal of achievements - or at least the pretense of them being there - is paved with one thing that has been prominent in a few recent movies, like "The Informant" or "City Island:" lies.

It's as if we're all creating our own little matrix for our fellowmen in retaliation for the Matrix of the big lies our leaders are creating for us, and - aren't they showing us which way we're supposed to go, after all? Most of us, frankly, don't care too much about the truth to begin with, so, they're quite comfortable with that. Others, like De Niro's character in this film (some say his best yet), wouldn't mind occasionally being told the truth for a change. Once the illusions are destroyed and forgotten, lo and behold - who would have ever thought so? - life actually becomes enjoyable again, and "they all lived happily ever after."

Recommendations: The Matrix , Fratello sole, sorella luna , The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John

There IS no spoon!

Last updated: 2010-03-09 08:41:18 by user05

Achievement Road: Paved with Lies

To be quite frank, this is not the type of movie I'd be looking forward to watching a seond time, since the bulk of it is ridden with the bitter taste of reality - that of children lying to their parents as a result of parents lying to their children, to each other, etc. - and, after all, isn't that the one thing we're all escaping when watching movies - reality, and the   principal reason why movies are a trillion dollar industry?
But then, this movie certainly has its lessons to teach, the protruding one of which might be summed up in the sigh, "If people could only accept one another for who and what they are, instead of expecting them to reach some self-imposed standard of their living our own 'impossible dream,' this world might be a better place.

In a society where achievement is what defines you, rather than your character or other inner values, the way to reach that goal of achievements - or at least the pretense of them being there - is paved with one thing that has been prominent in a few recent movies, like "The Informant" or "City Island:" lies.
It's as if we're all creating our own little matrix for our fellowmen in retaliation for the Matrix of the big lies our leaders are creating for us, and - aren't they showing us which way we're supposed to go, after all? Most of us, frankly, don't care too much about the truth to begin with, so, they're quite comfortable with that. Others, like De Niro's character in this film (some say his best yet), wouldn't mind occasionally being told the truth for a change. Once the illusions are destroyed and forgotten, lo and behold - who would have ever thought so? - life actually becomes enjoyable again, and "they all lived happily ever after."

(Read Less...)

Recommendations: The Matrix , Fratello sole, sorella luna , The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John

There IS no spoon!

Last updated: 2010-03-09 02:32:33 by McDozer

Everybody's Fine: You betcha!

The bull is no longer raging and he's not driving a taxi any more. In fact, he now travels the not so mean streets on a Greyhound bus.

Still, Robert de Niro has retained his star power and he's positively brilliant in this quiet, moving flick. (Bring Kleenex.)
De Niro IS Frank Goode — everyman and every father. As a recent widower he's learning to deal with the details of life that were once his wife's balliwick. He's pretty good at gardening and vacuuming, but when it comes to connecting with his four grown children, well, not so much.

De Niro is helped by strong performances from Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell. But this is his movie. And he's more than fine.

See you at the movies, The Movie Slut

Everybody's Fine

     Despite a weeks worth of less than stellar reviews, I still wanted to see "Everybody's Fine."  I'm glad I did.
 
     "Everybody's Fine" is a family drama starring Robert De Niro as a recent widower who's looking forward to all four of his adult children coming home to visit.  When they all cancel on him, he, being retired and having nothing better to do, decides to go see them.  From there, we see three out of his four children and their perfect, or less than perfect, lives, and De Niro's character begins to piece together that everybody is not fine, despite his children's best efforts to hide the truth from him.  Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, and Sam Rockwell all deliver good performances as the family hiding something from dad and De Niro delivers his usual best.  (De Niro is a legend for a reason and shines in just about anything.)
 
     One might expect a lot of teary eyed melodrama or each member of the family to be picture perfect on the outside but hide dark and terrible secrets in a drama like this, and I am pleased to say that this is not the case.  Sure, the kids are not telling dad everything, but this is part of the tension.  They've spent their lives trying to make dad proud and confiding in mom, and that's gone now, but that's the story; a much more true to life drama about a family finding a new dynamic to exist in when the old one is gone. De Niro's character isn't fine either, nobody's fine, but, by the end, we discover that, while nobody's perfect, everybody actually is, fine.  (More or less.)
 
     I enjoyed "Everybody's Fine" for the same reason I enjoyed "The Big Chill;" it's a slice of life, something that is rooted in reality and is not over dramatized.  I can see this happening.  It happens everyday.  Life goes on, you can't achieve perfection, but you can be happy, and that's, ultimately, what's important.

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Brian
Ciné Critique Américain

It's been a long trip

Greetings again from the darkness. Writer/director Kirk Jones just needs to work a little more frequently. His first two projects were the fascinating Waking Ned Devine and the deeper than expected Nanny McPhee. The guy has some real talent and unique insight. He is also wise enough to cast Robert Deniro and then bring out his best performance in years.

Sure, there are some similarities to Nicholson's wonderful turn in About Schmidt, but contrary to the trailers, this one is no light-hearted holiday fluff. There are deep emotions and more real-life family baggage than most will care to admit (translated, there were quite a few sniffles in the theatre).

Deniro's kids are scattered about leading their own lives after a childhood of pressure, demands and expectations. The differences in how each have handled it is very interesting. Drew Barrymore wants very much to be the daddy's girl, while Kate Beckinsale is the corporate type-A who just can't manage her family. The always excellent Sam Rockwell is the music prodigy enjoying his stress-free live as a symphonic percussionist (instead of a conductor). The youngest is a troubling story line that ends up tying everything together for the Deniro character, as well as the family.

Aside from the mostly atrocious music, this one is an emotional tug-fest that will stimulate a bit of self-analysis from all parents.

Vincent Snavely