Everybody's Fine
approaches the family concept
differently than most holiday films.
It's not exactly a holiday film but
it's about family around the
holidays and it was released
theatrically during that time
period.
Frank Goode is a pretty
normal guy. He's in his sixties and
he's retired and his wife recently
passed away. When Frank's now-grown
kids cancels at the last minute on
Christmas he's concerned. He
recently lost his wife and she was
the person who talked to their kids
and kept everyone moving. She was
his better half. He's been alone in
his house and out of touch with his
kids. That's why he's decided to go
cross country to check on them
and find out why they all cancelled.
He's not going to like what he
hears all the time but in the end
he'll be a better father and he'll
truly
know his children and thus
appreciate his family even more.
Everybody's Fine
is a De Niro film. It's not
something that you would see him
making but once you see it and watch
and embrace him as Frank he's always
remarkable and he's remarkable here
too. Really great actors evolve into
different characters as they get
older and that's what De Niro does
here. He's the elderly widower who's
out of touch and trying to find his
way into his new role and back into
his kids' lives.
There's not a lot of action to this
movie and if it didn't have a great
cast this could air the Hallmark
Channel. That's not to say that it's
corny, it's just that the script is
pretty predictable and other than
Frank you're not getting to know the
characters nearly enough. It's not a
typical family film piece, all of
the characters have real problems,
but you don't get into those
problems or those characters enough
to make them viable. The reasoning
behind this is probably because
Frank doesn't know his kids really
either so why should the audience
get to? But look, all you think
about for 75% of this movie is how
distant Frank must have been to the
kids growing up and how terrible and
distant to him they are now. You
don't feel any emotion for anyone
other than Frank. Those characters
aren't really allowed to tell their
side of the story.
With the DVD release of this movie
you're not getting a ton of
bonus material. You get some deleted
and extended scenes and you get
a stellar interview piece with Sir
Paul McCartney about the making
of his song for the movie "(I Want
To) Come Home."
It's hard to pick apart a movie like
this. It's not an amazing
movie, it's just very good and very
likable. It does what it's supposed
to do. It's supposed to be an
emotional, heartwarming movie that
can be watched and re-watched around
the holidays when everyone needs to
connect more.
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