Movie Review: Another movie set on self description

Everybody’s Fine is for those who stare out windows; those who would rather stay in the car after a three-hour drive than step out, stretch and find themselves trapped in one spot for the next four-to-five days. Unfortunately, that’s where this remake of Giuseppe Tornatore’s film Stanno Tutti Bene eventually ends up: stuck. A simple, satisfying travel film at the core, it still can’t avoid trying to be too much more.

But at first, Robert De Niro is on screen and everything looks promising. His character is a recent widower named Frank Goode who’s looking forward to a visit from his four grown children, who fill out an ensemble cast which includes Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale; names to impresses that meet expectations. One by one, Franks kids cancel on him, and left alone in a house rife with their memories, he decides to travel across the United States and pay a surprise visit to each one, starting with David in New York City.

David isn’t there, and his absence provides a secondary conflict to the film, secondary to the repeated lies Frank’s full-grown kids tell him. Mom had always been the one they talked to, and rather than reveal any sordid aspects of their lives to dad, the first two usher him along his way after a one-night stay, making up various excuses about why he can’t stay longer. All the better in my opinion, as the best aspect of Everybody’s Fine is the traveling.

Clearly the film is building toward a late-life epiphany, but right now there are so many open roads. Director Kirk Jones, who also adapted the screenplay, spends his time pointing a camera out the window of the buses and trains. The United States is a big place, and I appreciate a film that reminds me of the variety available through the simple purchase of a ticket. Jumping from one character to another, Everybody’s Fine develops an exploratory rhythm to match the up and down of the power lines passing by, with each meeting followed by another ride. In the downtime, Frank can sit and puzzle over what his family is hiding from him.

The subtly, so refreshing from a film in wide release, comes to an unfortunate end.

Enter the deus ex machina.

As if uncomfortable with the thought that one subtle revelation would miss a viewer, Jones makes everything painfully obvious. Toward the end of the film, Frank has a vision of his children sitting with him around a table in the backyard of the home they shared. He asks them why he’s always lied to and then confronts them with the truth behind the lives they showed. Not only does this scene ruin the tone of the film, it is completely unnecessary. I had figured out most of these truths already and wished I had been given a further chance to discover the others. Plus, De Niro had been continuously expressing his awareness without words. I have no idea if this scene is in the original film, which I haven’t seen, but that doesn’t matter much because it is here, turning what had been a slow, enjoyable trip to understanding Frank into a moral. Honesty is good.

Everybody’s Fine concludes as expected. Everything has been revealed and all minds are at ease. A boring place to end, no doubt, but at least a few legs of the journey had been worthwhile. De Niro was an enjoyable companion, after all, and the countryside fine.

1 ½ out of 4 stars

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