ThisFilmIsOn

Someone once told me that the key to great drama is conflict. Thus, with a film entitled ‘Everybody’s Fine’ the scope for two hours worth of engaging drama would seem limited on the surface at least. Of course as is the trend these days, everybody is in fact not fine.Based on Italian movie ‘Stanno tutti bene’ Bobby De Niro’s latest pic see’s him in the guise of a recently widowed father of four, the much beleagured Frank Goode. After a failed attempt to draw his offspring home for the holidays Frank sets out on an ill-advised road trip in order to pay each of his kids a surprise visit.

As a jumping off point this works well, coming over as a slightly more mainstream version of quirky road movies like The Straight Story and Little Miss Sunshine. As lonely Frank journeys to New York we see the hidden side of the archetypal embarrasing Dad. The father who beems with pride at the very thought of his children and regails complete strangers with tales of their achievements. To begin with at least, Frank’s idiosyncrasies are endearing and well observed, but as the movie goes on they become so extreme that Frank becomes more of a characature.

Sadly this ‘almost road movie’ grinds to an abrupt halt upon the introduction of Frank’s children, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell and Drew Barrymore. Whilst the performances are mostly sound, even Kate Beckinsale is in Laurel Canyon form as opposed to her more typical fare, the characterisation is flawed. Each of the Goode children are painted as emo teenagers masquerading as adults which makes all of them instantly dislikable. The ‘kids’ spend the movie attempting to avoid and decieve their much more likeable father and whilst the film’s climax attempts to justify their actions you are left thinking that if they had only employed a more open and truthful attitude everything actually would be fine.

The snifter of sympathy that did well up in my gut was not for any of the characters, rather than for De Niro himself. As Frank Goode is mugged in a secluded under pass by Warren from Empire Records I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d just seen Travis Bickle the victim.

Subsequently I started to ponder just why we seem destined to bare witness to the atrophy of one of Hollywood’s last real icons. Heat is now fifteen years old and, with the exception of the odd installment of mediocre, self afacing satire such as Analyse This and What Just Happened, you have to ask yourself why De Niro is being offered such soft roles?   

As it stands the resolution of Everybody’s Fine  is born out of guilt rather than love and you are left with the underwhelming feeling that not a single character has undergone any kind of arc. Whilst De Niro’s Frank does eventually get the family meal he’s been striving for it seems a hollow reward for all his sacrifice.