Everybody's Fine
December. 04,2009 PG-13Eight months after the death of his wife, Frank Goode looks forward to a reunion with his four adult children. When all of them cancel their visits at the last minute, Frank, against the advice of his doctor, sets out on a road trip to reconnect with his offspring. As he visits each one in turn, Frank finds that his children's lives are not quite as picture-perfect as they've made them out to be.
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Highly Overrated But Still Good
best movie i've ever seen.
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Blistering performances.
"Everybody's Fine" is a film about a widower father reconnecting with his adult children spread across the U.S. Robert De Niro's Frank Goode apparently was a stern parent who pushed his kids to get ahead. But, in his retirement and loss of his wife, he longs for family connectedness that had always been provided by his wife. The kids could talk to her but not to him. This is a film about a dysfunctional family, with subsequent dysfunctions. The acting is mostly mediocre, with only De Niro giving a fine performance. The story becomes predictable as it unfolds. And, Frank's fear of flying is passé. By the 1990s, fear of flying was pretty much gone from the public consciousness. So, here, the hero takes to riding buses, trains, and catching a ride from a trucker. Instead of two- or three-hour flights from one city to another, Frank spends days on the road. Which slows the story down that much more, and needs filling with little anecdotes here and there with fellow passengers. All of that, combined with a dysfunctional family film makes for a mostly depressing and dull movie. By the 21st century, so-called "normal" or healthy families had become the exception. Hardly any family exists today that hasn't had some dysfunction with addictions or any number of social, health, mental or other problems. Most people don't flock to such films for entertainment. So, it's no wonder that the box office take for "Everybody's Fine" didn't come close to recovering its estimated $21 million budget.
This is a slow moving comedy, that tries to be both funny and dramatic at the same time, and manages to convey neither overly successfully.It gets bogged down by too many slow scenes, and drips with sentimentality at times.It's hard to work out whether De Niro is underreacting to everything as an acting choice or whether he's just bored by the material he's being asked to deliver.Things perk up a little bit once Drew Barrymore (always lovely) and Sam Rockwell (always reliable) pop up, but they can't save a film that's going nowhere.
Realistic, gentle, and a very common real life family drama. A Lonely widower travels across the states in a fraught attempt to round up his now grownup busy children for a family get-together since their mother's funeral. Wrapped around a pretty simple story yet very cleverly constructed. DeNiro gives a brilliant performance and still at his best while taking a calm, careworn, less iconic role. British writer-director Kirk Jones has persuaded him to turn the heat down. DeNiro plays Frank Goode - A retired guy with cardiac and respiratory problems, struggling to keep up. With a strong supporting cast, there is a third-act crisis that shares Frank's stunned incredulity. A film is overall very real, refreshing in a sense, yet very touching nonetheless.~ @asifahsankhan
This film was superb. It is a very simple story of a dad trying to connect with his kids after they have grown up and grown apart. This film is a marvel of character development so vivid that you truly feel an impact from the realistic scenes and dialog. It is played perfectly by Robert DeNiro. I would recommend this to anyone looking to enjoy a good story that is wonderfully told. There are some funny parts, there are some sad parts, there are some really meaningful personal resolutions and it is all told very artfully.I am not one much for writing reviews but this film did compel me to say something since I think this film's story needs to be shared.