EVERYBODY’S FINE Review

To consider EVERYBODY’S FINE as Robert De Niro’s comeback is not an understatement. After the unbearable Righteous Kill and What Just Happened, you would think that his golden days are behind him but… the Godfather’s still got it. The Awakenings‘ De Niro that we used to know has returned. EVERYBODY’S FINE is profound and touching, a holiday surprise. One of the best family drama I’ve ever seen.

“Everybody’s Fine,” a remake of Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Stanno Tutti Bene,” follows a widower (De Niro) who embarks on an impromptu road trip to reconnect with each of his grown children only to discover that their lives are far from picture perfect.

Nobody questions De Niro’s wide range of abilities as an actor, he just needs the right story and the right role. EVERYBODY’S FINE does for De Niro what About Schmidt did for Jack Nicholson. The roles that only those guys can play, they’re meant for them to do all along. Frank Goode (De Niro) wants to hold on to what’s left of his family, not realizing that either his actions or his childrens’ action have placed them apart. What De Niro is really good at in this film is showcasing his longing, his regret, and often his stubbornness that keeps him from accepting the fact that his children may not want to share everything about their real lives to him. You’ll be entertained by how old school Goode is and by that I mean he doesn’t carry cell phones, he travels by trains and buses and he doesn’t know that the backpack has a handle.
De Niro’s performance is so brilliant in this movie, his reactions are so dead-on, you can almost read what’s going through his mind because it takes a while for him to finally embrace his children for who they are or who they’ve turned out to be. There are instances when he’s in denial, he keeps telling them that he’s proud of them but you can tell he’s expecting something more.

Writer/director Kirk Jones treats this remake at first by making us side with Goode, making us think that the children are to blame because they’re too busy for their old man and they lie but as the story progresses and the walls tumble down, we start to think that maybe the blame is on Goode for being too hard on his kids, expecting so much of them that no matter what they’ve done they could never seem to make him proud.
It’s a bit unfair for him to push them so hard when he himself didn’t have any dreams to achieve when he was younger.
Goode says “I just wanna be a good father”, and he’s determined to make that mean he needs to know both the good news and the bad news about his family.
I think it’s excellent how Director Jones uses child actors to represent Goode’s grown children in the confrontation scene around the table. It goes to show that Goode never got a full grasp or understanding about his children even when they were little. The damage is a result of a lifetime of distrust and secrets.

Rosie (Barrymore), Robert (Rockwell), and Amy (Beckinsale) have their problems, and as much as much as they try to hide ‘em from their father, Goode is not stupid. He puts the pieces together eventually.
The movie is well-structured, the pacing is just right. Each visit gets a fair share, mainly because each child has to quietly find out what has happened to their brother David. The metaphor of phone wires in relation to the communication between Goode’s children is subtle yet effective. This movie also has moments that get the wind knocked out of you, not just through the bad news at the hospital but through a certain painting that tells Goode that even when things don’t work out the way he wants them to, he’s still on his children’s minds day in and day out.

Movies about relationship between fathers and children always have a soft spot in my heart. Movies like Rocky Balboa and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs are warm reminders that though fathers may want the best for their children, sometimes the intention could get lost in the approach or the methods. And it’s always heartbreaking for any parent to have to live longer than their child. What I appreciate about EVERYBODY’S FINE is its message of guiding the kids in one direction, up to a certain point, and then let them find their own ways afterward.

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