Once pegged as arguably the finest actor of his generation, Robert DeNiro's meteoric descent into mediocrity, characterized by one appalling project choice after another, have finally brought us to the once unthinkable point where "starring Robert DeNiro" is these days less an assurance as to a certain level of quality and more a thinly veiled threat. With that in mind we approach journeyman director Kirk Jones star-studded remake of the 1990 Italian original, centered on ol' Bob as a pushy Father attempting to bridge distancing relationships with his four grown children, with a certain apprehension. First then, the good news. DeNiro is just fine, without a hint of the self-parody we've all grown so tired of, and refreshingly buttoned down. The bad news is that the entire affair is simply so tepid and uninspired, a pallid amble down a well-worn brush towards an appropriately middling vista.
With his quartet of apparently all well-to-do offspring all canceling on the planned get-together, their first since the death of their mother earlier that year, lonely widower Frank Goode (DeNiro) decides to pay them each a surprise visit, stopping off at the doctors first to receive a health warning serving as the film's only meager serving of urgency. Unable to track down his youngest son David, a painter in New York City, Frank then heads down to daughter Amy (Kate Beckinsale), an up market Ad Exec who is struggling to balance work and kids in her attempt to "have it all." It's here that Frank starts to realize that his children aren't as open and honest with him about their lives as he thought, and as soon as Amy starts talking to Robert (Sam Rockwell) and Rosie (Drew Barrymore) about the serious spot of bother David has gotten in south of the border, it's swiftly evident exactly where this overly familiar tale is headed.
Therein lines the problem with Everybody's Fine, it's just so regimented. The kind of picture where everyone (DeNiro aside, obviously) gets equal screen time and equivalent space on the one-sheet. A gallery of safe, unchallenging roles where they can all pick up very reasonable money, maybe work three weeks instead of ten, and wait for a more enticing offer to come across their agents desk. Tasked with tying it all together, DeNiro delivers a series of quietly painful moments of contemplation as he realizes that in pushing his children so hard to attain his standards he only succeeded in pushing them away. Lingering shots out of train car windows here, a succession of rolling-by telegraph poles there, before the predictable emotional beat between father and child that takes place somewhere else that's cheaper to film.
As Frank comes to realize that the son he thought was a composer is only a percussion musician, and daughter Rosie is a go-go dancer, we get textbook scenes of confrontation whereby we witness the easily identifiable raising, negotiating, and dismantling of long-standing emotional resentment. The kind of exercise you can easily partake in yourself by signing up for virtually any weekend actors workshop seminar. At this point we should stress that there is nothing really wrong with Everybody's Fine, at all. Just that it's all so middle-of-the-road, which is in a way somewhat fitting because is there is a point to Jones' lusterless road-tripper it's that it's okay to be average, which not only sums up this film, but the entire last fifteen years of star DeNiro's career.
DVD Extras
Deleted/Extended Scenes and the making of the music video for Paul McCartney's featured song "(I Want To) Come Home."
"Everybody's Fine" is on sale February 23, 2010 and is rated PG13. Drama. Directed by Kirk Jones. Written by Kirk jones (Writer), Massimo De Ritta & Tonino Guerra & Giuseppe Tornatore (Original Screenplay). Starring Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Robert De Niro, Sam Rockwell.
