Review: Everybody’s Fine
When I watched this film I didn’t expect much. I knew very little about it and I think this lack of information was crucial to the impact Everybody’s Fine had on me – when the credits rolled I felt more rewarded from watching this film than I have done from any other film I can recall in a long time.
Robert De Niro plays widower Frank Goode who wants desperately to see his four children in the holidays. When all of them don’t show up he decides he’ll go to surprise all of them by showing up on each of their doorsteps. He just wants to make sure that everybody’s fine because he wants nothing but the best for them.
The film emphasises that Frank used tough love on his kids to make sure that they were successful later in life. His tough parenting is supposed to yield a long term reward for his children as they are meant to all become successful people within society and the film takes you through his journey to discover whether his children have done him proud.
I won’t say much more than this because I want you to watch Everybody’s Fine with the same level of knowledge about it that I had when I watched it. I wasn’t expecting much: I was expecting to watch a comedy masked as a drama that was too hallmarkish for my liking. Instead I was treated to a 95 minute experience that mixed drama with subtle comedy that left me with a similar feeling that Pixar’s Up did – the core theme is the same just with a different, more down to earth viewpoint.
Frank’s character is what you expect from a retired old man who spends all his time in the garden: he has his traditions he sticks to, he’s more bold in what he does and he has that carefree nature that is restricted by his failing health. Frank is a lovable character who you can’t help but smile at: when the film’s tone was happy I found myself smiling happily whilst watching.
You are a sap for his innocent nature and you almost forget that De Niro is playing him – never would you associate Frank Goode to the likes of Vito Corleone, Travis Bicker or Neil McCauley. I haven’t seen De Niro play this kind of role really before (the closest he has had to one like it was as Jack Byrnes in Meet the Parents) but his performance is completely believable – you feel like you’re watching an innocently naive old man trying valiantly to stay close with his grownup kids in the big, wide world.
Here's the retired old man just looking to see if he's done good by his children. De Niro plays this part with such stunning conviction you'd almost believe he really was just a retired old man, not a Hollywood actor.
The kids themselves all have bit parts somewhat in Everybody’s Fine, the likes of Drew Barrymore (50 First Dates), Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) and Sam Rockwell (Moon) all playing their respective characters excellently. The sense of truthful realism in the way that the characters live within the film is great – what I mean by this is that rarely do you see a film where that sense of real life is so accurately portrayed. Most films seem content with having at least some elements of glamorising an aspect of daily life and whilst Everybody’s Fine can have the odd moment where this appears it maintains a very firm grip on the real world as we live it, not see it in the movies.
That’s perhaps what I like most about this film – it doesn’t try to be more than it needs to be. The narrative is fairly simple but has an edge of complexity that is pieced together over the course of the film using relevant imagery and creative storytelling techniques. The small cast of characters conform to typicality but the stereotypes aren’t glamorised – they are representations of the different people who really do exist in our society.
Overall Impressions:
Everybody’s Fine was far more powerful and far greater than I was expecting – De Niro gives an incredibly heartfelt performance that only encourages the other actors around him to succeed expectations. Never is this film going to be regarded as cinematic gold that takes its place in the Film Hall of Fame, but for the few like me this film has a lot of heart and it struck all the right notes.
And you know what? I’ll be damned if I’m going to have the mass of critics that contradict my opinion affect how I felt about this film. Say what you want to me, throw every criticism of the film you have at me. I’m not going to be swayed here – for me Everybody’s Fine was fantastic and it’s become one of my favourite films in recent years.
Rating: 
You are mentaly retarded
Ok Harry, I think I am going to take your word on this one and give it a watch however If this is… A) a complete lie and actually the film is rubbish and your pulling a joke on the readers (like I did when I convinced Balaam that “paranormal activity” was an excellent film when actually it’s horrendous)… B) Terrible and your incompetence of writing reviews has reached a whole new peak… then Harry I am afraid it will have been too many chances for you… I am going to have to take down your shrine in my house and replace it with a new shrine of someone else… Maybe Balaam, however his previous comments on this review seemed so thoroughly useless and mindlessly rude that I feel he would be an unwise choice. Finally to finish off my boring comment, which no one else will read, with a positive… De Niro is a legend to say the least.
@Lasquith
B) is going to be the likely option here.
A) is not true at all & as I pointed out several times in the review, my opinion is going to be of the absolute minority. In no way at all do I think you’re going to like this film.
Not one bit. If the “chances” you’re referring to is Wolverine, look at the other review scores for the game. If you’re on about the harsh score for Assassin’s Creed 2 that you think I gave, I can’t say anything that will change your mind. The score I gave for AC2 was just, but from my perspective. The same goes for every review I’ve written.
Surely (and this is aimed at you too Balaam, you rude rude man) when you review something you’re entitled to your opinion and what you write and what you score is your choice and your choice ONLY. You don’t factor in other people’s own views when writing a review, just yours. And mine is that AC2 is 3 stars, Wolverine is 3.5 stars and Everybody’s Fine is 5 stars.
For me that’s end of.
Also, I didn’t know you had a shrine of me… :/
Surely harry in this review which i admittedly haven’t read you should provide a summary of what most people would think of the film, so to advice them as to whether it’s worth their time watching, while you are perfectly entitled to give your own opinion specify that this is of a minority group, because judging by your reveiws, of which i have read none, you have awful taste.
Hmmm with regards to this film I have no opinions as I a a hyper intelligent living among holograms :/ I think Big Dog Ajder is basically God scaled down and that God is Big Dog Ajder scaled down, I would be interested to know what Kay Balaam has to say about this film, maybe we could have a “chat” about it. That wouldn’t be wierd would it Olly? Anyway im of to masturbate and use auto erotic self asphyxiation to pleasure myself, it wont be long before im of to Cambridge where i can live in peace with the other hyper intelligent beings. Peace out homeys, big up respect and remember> Keep your pimp hand strong!
seeing as im such a Big Dog it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks of this film as my opinion is clearly fact. I take bare supplements to build my wanking muscle, im up to five times a day now, and thats on top of all my “visits” to chris’s mum.