Everybody’s Fine

I didn’t so much want to see Kirk Jones’ Everybody’s Fine so much as I already felt that I had.

(Every damn movie I’ve seen for the last three months has featured a trailer. I finally gave in and used my MJR rewards free ticket for a 10:20 show. I had a free popcorn too, so major score.)

For those of you who possibly haven’t seen the trailer—featuring Drew Barrymore looking positively Cover Girl fabulous—Everybody’s Fine revolves around a retired father (Robert DeNiro) visiting his four children shortly after the death of his wife. The jig is up relatively quickly that everybody is not in fact fine. Barrymore plays the dancer daughter Rosie; Kate Beckinsale is ad exec Amy; and Sam Rockwell plays rumpled percussionist Robert. The film is based off of an Italian film.

Technically, Everybody’s Fine is capable but drags a bit in the back half. There are some weird dream sequences that go a bit too dark for this mainstream of a film. We don’t really see enough of the strife to get pulled in; we see only the cover up and it quickly becomes frustrating.

The performances are decent, with the exception of DeNiro. DeNiro, being DeNiro, is pretty fantastic. The man can act. The best part of the film are silent snapshots of DeNiro’s character making his way in the mundane world of retirement.

I’m not sure if I would exactly pay to see Everybody’s Fine. The back half revelations were downright depressing. But overall, it was, you know—fine.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh7H92iE2V0