Everybody's Fine

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This remake of Giuseppe 'Cinema Paradiso' Tornatore's Stanno Tutti Bene makes no apologies for being sentimental schmaltz but those waiting for De Niro to shake of the lazy shackles and deliver another powerhouse performance, like he used to, will have to wait longer.

De Niro plays Frank Goode, a retired widower with a heart problem, who has nothing to do but to potter about the garden and look forward to having his four kids around the same table for the first time in years this weekend. One by one, however, they cancel on him so Frank, against his doctor's orders, takes off around the country to surprise them. First up is David (Austin Lysy), an artist with whom Frank has had a fraught relationship with, but he's not in so it's on to advertising exec Amy (Beckinsale). Tensions between her husband and her son ruin the family dinner, however. Robert (Rockwell), a percussionist in an orchestra that's about to hit the road, is next up and then onwards to Vegas and dancer Rosie (Barrymore), whose career and life seems to be on the up and up. But is that beautiful apartment really hers? Is she hiding something? Are they all hiding something?

'Fine' is a word that keeps popping up here. 'Fine' suggests that things aren't bad but that they could be better; the same goes for the movie. Everybody's Fine is a flawed movie but it was always going to be - would it be possible to make such a film without resorting to easy sentiment? Although he doesn't sweat in the role (he hasn't sweated in a role in an age), De Niro holds the fort together with an amiable turn, he does the job but he's not rocking anyone's world; Beckinsale, Rockwell and Barrymore have little screen time to muscle attention away from him. While De Niro underplays it again, Director Kirk Jones works overtime with endless shots of telephone wires, never letting the audience forget that communication is the movie's theme.

This isn't to suggest that Everybody's Fine is a disaster. It's far from it. Everyone keeps secrets from their parents so as to not to worry them, even though they insist on knowing all the good and bad stuff that's going on in our lives. When we make that weekly call, we emphasise the good news, skim over the bad. The movie taps into this - we mightn't be top dollar advertising execs or percussionists or Vegas ballerinas but we are Amy, Robert and Rosie and it's rare these days where you can see yourself on screen. Despite its flaws, this easy going drama might make you want to call your dad, see how he is, tell him everything's fine.