Miramax Films and Radar Pictures

Written By: Kirk Jones

How we communicate with those we love and how those closest to us can be so easily taken for granted lies at the center of Kirk Jones’ “Everybody’s Fine.” Adapted from a 1990 Italian film of the same name and anchored by a terrific performance from Robert DeNiro, “Everybody’s Fine” is this fall’s family-themed holiday comedy/drama. Less however about the Christmas holiday and packing a heavier emphasis on the drama, “Everybody’s Fine” is a watchable but uneven affair that never develops into anything truly great or all that memorable.

Robert DeNiro stars as Frank Goode, a recent widower who has just started settling into the cadence of life by himself. Frank has arranged for his four children to return home for a weekend, hoping to reconnect with them in a way that his wife excelled at and he often struggled with. One-by-one, however, the children notify him that because of various different reasons, they will not be coming home. With his children scattered around the country, Frank decides to personally visit each one unannounced. As Frank reaches each destination, he soon learns that the lives his children are living may not be the comfortable, easy, and successful lives he was led to believe they were experiencing. Rather, he uncovers details he never knew of, facts which were exaggerated or misrepresented, and new situations he never could have anticipated.

David is a freelance artist/painter living in New York City. Amy (Kate Beckinsale) is a successful advertising executive, partner in her own firm, who is married with a son. Robert (Sam Rockwell) is a percussionist in a traveling orchestra group in Colorado and Rosie (Drew Barrymore) is a performer and dancer in Las Vegas. Hoping to stay for a few days with each child, everyone is too busy and much of the middle of the film shifts to a kind of road movie, where Frank shuffles off to the next child and the next and the next.

A film such as this requires the viewer to make an emotional purchase in the story, and I started bouncing emotional checks when Frank sets out on his journey. Prior to that however, DeNiro wins you over immediately from the opening frames of the film; vacuuming, pruning trees, asking an underage stock clerk for help in buying good wine at the grocery store. DeNiro’s Frank Goode is vulnerable and affable; defiant but endearing. He is a proud, recent retiree who wrapped telecommunications wires for virtually all of his adult life. To Frank, each wire connected to a telephone pole legitimizes his life’s work and have provided the means available for him to communicate with his remaining loved ones. The script, as authored by director Kirk Jones, struggles to provide enough substance and actual character to Frank’s children, thus robbing the viewer the opportunity to really connect to them. Frank’s visits become nothing more than 10-15 minute vignettes and the film encounters a tonal shift which changes the feel of the film markedly.

With a few twists and blatant tugs at the heartstrings, “Everybody’s Fine” becomes pretty pedestrian by its conclusion. Without a true sense of connection to Frank’s children, I began to wonder if Frank would be happier just going about his day – tending to the yard, shopping at the local store, and integrating into his community more. Using those power lines to check in with his children, almost reciprocating what they can give him. Naturally, if you’ve seen one of these family dramedys, you’ve seen them all, so it is now great shock how the film ultimately ends up. Be that as it may, I wanted more. I wanted that opening 15 minutes with Robert DeNiro to carry me through the film. Despite his best efforts, “Everybody’s Fine” ends up a rather mediocre and average film.

Should I See It?

Robert DeNiro is great and hasn’t been this real and engaging in many a movie.

Family films such as this one, often are loved by moviegoers and panned by critics. It’s an easy watch and if you tend to enjoy the smaller feel family film, you should like this – maybe even a lot.

An easy watch, the film mixes humor and drama in a story that could really make you treasure those distant loved ones you don’t connect to nearly enough.

NO

An underwritten script and underdeveloped supporting characters render the film less interesting than it should certainly be.

DeNiro is so good and Frank puts up with quite a bit that I found myself almost wishing he hadn’t bothered with the trip. A family film where you consistently appreciate the patriarch more than the children seems troubling to me.

Frankly, there are much better films broaching the same subject matter. Sorry, there just are…