Everybody's Fine (2009)

Director: Kirk Jones
Writer: Kirk Jones (based on: Stanno tutti bene(1990))
(Original Screenplay: Massimo De Rita, Tonino Guerra, Giuseppe Tornatore)
Cast: Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale
Genre: Drama

The thing about Everything's Fine I first like to point out is the fact I kept thinking this is so much more of an European style story than Hollywood usually produces. Not researching before watching, I didn't know until the end credits Kirk Jones has actually based this movie on Giuseppe Tornatore's Stanno tutti bene (1990). Tornatore's well known for Cinema Paradiso, The Legend of 1900 and Malèna just to mention a few of his others, and then the mood of this movie makes a lot more sense as it sure feels like something coming out of Italy or France.

I'm not a huge fan of American remakes in general, but as its been two decades since the original I object less. Especially since the world have turned quite a bit in those decades. Everybody got less time on their hands today and traveling is easier than ever, but rarely do any of us take the time to travel anyway. Frank (De Niro) reminds us of that facts of life with his travel, but he also pokes at the fact everybody always seems to think it's better portraying everything as fine when relatives, colleagues, old friends or even family asks how we are.

I predict much of the reason Kirk Jones have managed to attract such an ensemble cast, is the fact they've seen the original. Jones have only made Nanny McPhee and Waking Ned Devine prior to this, and with such an atypical Hollywood production I don't think he would have been able to attract them normally. Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale are all among the group of actors/actresses I generally enjoy, and they deliver so incredible well with De Niro here. They've managed to get all those emotions into their characters, and it's such a joy to watch.

I'm not gonna dig much into the story at hand. Frank is a recent widower looking forward to welcome all his four kids home for the weekend. Kids who live spread across the country, so they're never getting all together anymore. Frank's late wife was usual the one keeping in touch with the kids, but now he feels its his duty to do so. When all kids cancel last minute, Frank sets out to surprise them by visiting them instead. We get to follow his journey, and it's a heartwarming experience highlighting common society problems with this period of time, as well as being a reminder about our elders, the human side-effects of this new wide open world and the facades most people puts up for their surroundings just to mention a little.

It's a lot of depth in this movie and there's a lot of marvelous details in many of the scenes. There's also a couple of scenes I would have either cut all together or at least given less of an impact, but overall this is the best I've seen from Hollywood's brightest acting stars in quite a while. All in all a shining example of why many of us would like Hollywood to embrace more of the European style, as the combination of Hollywood's money and talent with the emotionally deep story-style from European filmmakers are a match made in cinematic heaven. It also made me wanna see the original.