Review: Everybody's Fine

It's a fact that Robert DeNiro hasn't been on form in recent years from dodgy crime thrillers like Righteous Kill through to 'industry satires' like What Just Happened anything he's been in has failed to make an impact. In Everybody's Fine he changes tack somewhat to play a recently widowed father of four who is himself suffering from health problems following years of making plastic casings for telephone wires. After all of his children cancel on him for a family barbecue he takes it upon himself to travel around the country and surprise each of them. Of course contrary to the title none of them are 'fine' his artist son isn't home and has instead fled to Mexico, his advertising exec daughter is divorced, his conductor son is in fact playing timpani and his Las Vegas dancer daughter's life isn't what it seems to be. The film is also played out as a road movie as DeNrio is unable to fly due to his condition he has to take buses and trains therefore we get to see his various conversations with random strangers on the road.

For me this is the best thing DeNiro has done in years his performance is subte and believable and may mark the start of a new part of his career. He is the life blood of the film and you real feel for him as each of his children decieve him. As his two daughters Kate Beckinsdale and Drew Barrymore are respectively reserved and ditzy and neither have much to do ditto Sam Rockwell as the conductor while Melissa Leo's female trucker is reduced to one scene, for me I would've liked to see more of her because her short interaction with DeNiro was one of the highlights. Waking Ned director Kirk Jones' style is very bizzare and the film doesn't seem to flow instead being a sequence of scenes connected by DeNiro's character. There is also a bizzare and weird segment in which DeNiro confronts the younger versions of his four children at a dinner table. It is hard to feel sympathy or anything for the children as they all seem selfish and unwilling to communicate with their loving father. Overall this film is worth watching just for DeNiro's performance and a quite good soundtrack while everything else is just 'fine'.