Everybody's Fine

For Hollywood to make a serious film about families gone wrong is something of a breakthrough, and this is so nearly a great film. It’s a brilliant idea and set-up, and for an hour it sticks to its guns before resorting to sentimentality in the final third, which is a shame.

The plot is refreshingly simple, the ideas behind it complex. De Niro, no longer playing scary fathers-in-law for laughs (thankfully), is Frank Goode, a recent widower with four adult children who have all moved away. When they all fail to turn up to his barbeque he decides to pay a surprise visit to each of them. He believes they are all happy and successful, telling everyone who will listen ‘everybody’s fine’, but he slowly discovers this is far from the case.

Artist son David is exhibited in a small New York gallery but doesn’t seem to be home, so Frank moves on to daughter Amy (Beckinsale), who owns an advertising agency. Except she doesn’t – she does though live in a fantastic house and have a cute kid, with whom Frank shares a game of golf. When Amy’s hubby comes home though, the atmosphere gets distinctly chilly.

Next stop is son Robert (Rockwell), conductor of the Philadelphia orchestra, who turns out to be just the drummer. Finally in Las Vegas, daughter Rosie (Barrymore) is surely happy – she lives in a great high-rise apartment and is enjoying her job, although still can’t seem to get a boyfriend.

The real strength here is the idea of a man who has worked hard his whole life in what sounds like the most boring job in the world – rubber wire covering – so he can provide for his children, expecting them to be successful. The twist is that actually the three kids we meet are happy, but not in the way Frank wants or expects. Robert is perfectly content to play his drum in the orchestra, knowing he is not talented enough to be a conductor, a fact Frank can’t bear to hear. Similarly Amy is good at her advertising job, and Rosie seems to be enjoying life without a boyfriend, but their lives are not simple.

De Niro is on top form here as a lonely, slightly sad man showing pictures of his kids to fellow train passengers, but coming to terms with the fact they are now almost strangers. It’s powerful stuff, but in the final act the overly literal substituting of the adult actors with children – representing how Frank sees them – is overdone and becomes trite and irritating. Of course we get the usual Hollywood ending, when the film’s title suddenly stops being ironic and is actually used straight, but it could have been so much more than that. For the first hour though it’s intense, moving stuff, well-played by a highly appealing cast.

Overall verdict: Powerful family drama which lacks the courage of its convictions, boasting fine performances all round.

Reviewer: Mike Martin