Everybody's Fine (2009)

Wow, this is a REALLY bad movie!

Purely Joyful Movie!

Good concept, poorly executed.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This is a slow moving comedy, that tries to be both funny and dramatic at the same time, and manages to convey neither overly successfully.It gets bogged down by too many slow scenes, and drips with sentimentality at times.It's hard to work out whether De Niro is underreacting to everything as an acting choice or whether he's just bored by the material he's being asked to deliver.Things perk up a little bit once Drew Barrymore (always lovely) and Sam Rockwell (always reliable) pop up, but they can't save a film that's going nowhere.

Realistic, gentle, and a very common real life family drama. A Lonely widower travels across the ­states in a fraught attempt to round up his now grownup busy children for a ­family get-together since their mother's funeral. Wrapped around a pretty simple story yet very cleverly ­constructed. DeNiro gives a brilliant performance and still at his best while taking a calm, careworn, less iconic role. British writer-director Kirk Jones has persuaded him to turn the heat down. DeNiro plays Frank Goode - A retired guy with cardiac and ­ respiratory problems, struggling to keep up. With a strong ­ supporting cast, there is a third-act ­crisis that shares Frank's stunned ­incredulity. A film is overall very real, refreshing in a sense, yet very touching nonetheless.~ @asifahsankhan

I liked this one quite a bit. Robert DeNiro is excellent and ultimately what makes this so watchable. He plays a widower who sets out to visit each of his 3 grown children only to discover that they've been hiding their problems from him. I liked the idea that he had to reconnect with his kids because his entire relationship with them had been through his wife. I have seen this scenario play out myself through a couple of friends. Its awkward and tough going.Nothing too exciting really happens here plot wise, but the story still kept my attention as 'Frank' travels around the country from NY to Chicago to Denver, to Vegas, meeting other lonely people and basically intruding on his children's lives.There is a bit of a mystery involved regarding what's in the envelopes he hand delivers to each of them and also in what has happened to his son David. I enjoyed DeNiro's scenes with Drew Barrymore a lot even if her secret did seem a bit far fetched. Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell & Austin Lysy play the other kids. I also enjoyed the flashbacks, where he sees his grown children as young kids. Ultimately I felt sad for Frank.I'm not sure why this is being marketed as a Christmas movie when it has nothing to do with the season. Even the (bad) poster has a tree on it. In actuality there is only 1 short scene involving the holiday. 3/28/15

I read through a couple of reviews before writing this and it surprised me how so many thought the performances were terrible or the focus on the young children were "so annoying." Great movies are only made great by those who understand them. How many great classic novels are pushed aside today because they sound boring or too difficult to read? Reading requires knowing how to read a book in order to understand what the author is saying, that's why English is required in school. Film "reading" is not required learning but should be since everyone watches movies.If you don't understand what you are watching, then how you can understand something wonderful happening in front of you? This film reflects the lives of so many who reach that point in their life. This is why for many dads, the song "Cat's in the Cradle" really hits home for them and their sons. They want to know that a part of them is with their children now and will live on. The subtly and simplicity of this film is what made it so wonderful to watch. A father visiting his children may not seem like much but when you're life is near the end, that's the best thing you can do with your time. You really have to understand how people live their lives in order to see all the little details in order to truly see what made this film so great. There are a few shots of him alone at home just living that show how lonely and quiet his life has become. It's also meant to reflect isolation, and the need for that human connection again. In old age routine becomes your friend and your enemy all at the same time. It gives you a reason to get up in the morning, thankful for another day and gets you doing stuff around the house.You find a theme of the importance of communication throughout the film. All he wanted was to find out what he missed all those years, but under that need, he just wanted to fill the shoes of being a good parent. This is something that many people can relate to, there are some who only talk to their mothers and some who only talk to their fathers over the phone. The one parent may tell the other but how often do they really listen. It's that little act of caring that does have an impact on the children. Parenting is not easy and everything you tell your kids does affect them later on, sometimes for good or bad. This movie shows those effects and how, if given the chance to talk to your young kids again, you would do things differently.This movie has been compared to About Schmidt and that this is De Niro's version of that. If it is or isn't, it really doesn't matter. Movies are meant to pull us into a world and get us to think. If this is another movie that is meant to appreciate your family and the time you have with them, then it's important to listen to the message. You only get so many Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with your kids; you don't get all of them. You only get to hug them so many times before they have to start doing that for their kids, and you know it's never enough. Everybody's Fine is about a man who wanted to see how his family was doing and found out, and it took some heart ache to do it, but that's because he cared enough to get out of his routine to do it.If you plan on watching this for the first time, bring some tissues, don't let anything interrupt you, and if your kids are watching it with you, keep them near you, you'll know why near the end. If your kids are adults now, then maybe this will start an open conversation with everyone.Film watching tip: don't bring anything into the movie (emotionally I mean), just sit, listen, don't talk, and look for the details. You will see why this movie is such an amazing, yet simple, film to watch.