Movie Review:-Everybody’s Fine

Movie Review:-Everybody’s Fine

Everybody’s Fine stars Robert De Niro as a retired gentleman in his 60’s who recently lost his wife. He is expecting his four adult children to spend the weekend at his house. He cuts his lawn, cleans the house, buys a new bbq to grill the big steaks he bought to go along with an expensive bottle of wine he purchased. Then he checks the answering machine – his two daughters have called to confirm that they and their two brothers were all too busy to go to his house that weekend. So Frank Goode, against the wishes of his doctor, sets out on a cross-country journey to visit his diverse and successful children and get the update as to what is going on in their lives.

He begins in New York, where David is an artist living in an apartment above the gallery that displays his art. Then there is the beautiful Amy (Kate Beckinsale), an advertising executive who lives in a beautiful house in a Chicago suburb with her husband and young son. Robert (Sam Rockwell) is a musician in an orchestra and lives in Denver. Finally, Frank makes his way to Las Vegas where Rosie (Drew Barrymore) is a professional dancer living in a beautiful apartment that overlooks Sin City.

As Frank’s journey unfolds, he learns more about his children and probably about himself. I get the feeling the kids learned a bit about their pops too. It is certainly an eye-opening and emotional experience for everyone involved.

That is the basic story of Everybody’s Fine. I have to say the first 45 minutes of the movie moved at a slow pace and I was really wondering where this film was going. I didn’t know much about the story and the trailer seemed to indicate that it was going to be a comedy. Based on some of De Niro’s past endeavors – the Focker movies, Analyze This and That, Showtime, Stardust – that is what I was expecting. However, Everybody’s Fine ended up being a rather serious and heartfelt tearjerker. I felt quite emotional at the end of the movie

as De Niro’s character tried to connect with his children and showed them that the old man had a thing or two up his sleeve. I absolutely loved the last 30 minutes. His analysis of each of his children kind of came out of left field. It was a very heart-warming moment.

With that being said, I am pretty sure that Everybody’s Fine is not a movie everyone will enjoy. The “New Moon” crowd and the “Ninja Assassin” group are sure to see it as nothing more than an excessively sentimental melodrama. For me, I really liked how the family and family values came to a head at the end of the movie. I liked how Frank Goode accepted his children despite any shortcomings he might have discovered. This movie made me smile despite the fact that it had no humans falling in love with vampires and then cheating on them with werewolves. Maybe it would have been nice if there were a ninja or two. Nevertheless, it was a nice change for De Niro to play what I thought was a pretty suitable and subtle role for him. Like everybody in the movie, my summary of this movie is it’s just fine. (8 out of 10)