In Theaters Dec 07 2009 @ 09:41 pm
REVIEW: Everybody’s Fine
Directed By: Kirk Jones
Written By: Kirk Jones
Starring: Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell
Running Time: 99 minutes
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and brief strong language
It’s Christmas time, and that means the public is 67% more likely to go to a movie if it has a Christmas tree on the poster. Okay, I just made that fact up, but it sounds plausible, right? And I guess the promoters behind Everybody’s Fine thought so, hence the Christmas tree on the poster. So, just in case it really is that important to you to see a Christmas movie, I guess I should warn you that Everybody’s Fine is not, in fact, a Christmas movie. Actually, it’s a loose remake of the 1990 Italian movie of the same title, and just like it, it’s set in the summertime.
Not that would have been any different if it had been set at Christmas, mind you. It’s a pretty simple family drama, and it even manages to streamline the original and ignore most of its subtleties. It begins when recent widower Frank Goode (Robert De Niro) decides to get his four children together for the last week of summer, and then watches them cancel, one by one. Ever the optimist (and despite a fairly serious medical condition), he decides to hit the road to surprise them all at home.
Of course there wouldn’t be much of a movie if they weren’t all weaving a complex web of lies, so the rest of the movie is about Frank untangling them all. And it’s actually pretty good — really — but I still can’t think of a real reason to recommend it. The operatic aspirations of the original have been replaced by the relatively facile conflict between Frank’s blue-collar background and his kids’ artistic aspirations; there are some pretty good visual metaphors at play — until the movie beats you over the head with them. Robert De Niro puts in arguably one of his best performances in quite a while, and Drew Barrymore (playing one of his daughters) is as engaging as always, but Kate Beckinsale (playing his other daughter) remains as bland as she’s ever been. That Christmas tree on the poster finally does make a cameo in the final scene (you were getting worried, weren’t you?), but in the end, Everybody’s Fine is nothing more than the latest bland remake of a much-better foreign film to come out of Miramax. You could do a lot worse, but you could probably do better.
on Dec 08 2009 @ 1:08 pm 1. Sam Juliano said …
OK Luke, the long streak of mutual agreement between us has been briefly waylayed with this one, but no biggie. And I can certainly live with the 3/5 you alloted it. I have sides with the minority here, and I must say I was extremely surprised, especially since the trailer (which I saw many times) was so God-awful.
I thought DeNiro was exceptional in a role that he wisely pulled back on, resisting saccharine overload. The director Kirk Jones captured small details, nuances and side glances effectively, and the showcasing of universal truths in this dysfunction milieu seemed to resonate. Rockwell and Barrymore were quite good, and I found Beckinsale a bit better than you did. I wanted to hate this film, but was shocked to find it better than this past weekend’s other two films, BROTHERS and the criminally overrated UP IN THE AIR.
Fine writing as always.
on Dec 09 2009 @ 12:00 pm 2. Luke Harrington said …
It’s interesting that you thought the trailer was so bad, as it’s what got me into the theater in the first place. It’s possible that my high expectations resulted in my relatively low opinion of the film, but I really did enjoy it while I was in the theater. It was just that once I started writing about it, it all quickly faded from my memory. It wasn’t that it was bad, necessarily, just that it didn’t do much to separate itself from the cavalcade of similar family dramas. Perhaps if I re-watched it, it would ring a bit truer for me.
on Dec 13 2009 @ 11:29 pm 3. Monday Morning Diary (December 14) « Wonders in the Dark said …
[...] Luke Harrington’s latest review up at Movie Zeal is a fine one on Everybody’s Fine: http://www.moviezeal.com/everybodys-fine/ Stephen at Checking My Sausages has what appears to be an excellent essay at “Checking My [...]
on Dec 15 2009 @ 8:52 am 4. Rick said …
the public is 67% more likely to go to a movie if it has a Christmas tree on the poster.
More like 95% more likely if you ask me.
Robert De Niro puts in arguably one of his best performances in quite a while,
Which isn’t saying much.
I saw the trailers for this and cringed. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
on Dec 15 2009 @ 5:21 pm 5. Sam Juliano said …
Rick I also saw the trailer many times and hated it. The film turned out to be way better than advertised. I blame the bad promotion.