It isn't really a conspiracy, nor is it with sinister intent, but children often decide to keep information about one another from parents. Eventually, parents usually find out. It's part of life, and something to make a movie about. "Everybody's Fine" has been made twice, 20 years ago in Italy starring Marcello Mastroianni, now in the U. S. with Roert DeNiro, and it hasn't really worked either time.
DeNiro, as Frank Goode, a retired electrical wire maker, has been grieving about the death of his wife for eight months. His health isn't very good, and against his doctor's orders, he decides to visit his four children, David, an artist in New York; Amy, an ad agency owner in Chicago; Robert, a musician in Denver; and Rosie, a dancer in Las Vegas. The trip was made necessary by the children calling and reporting that they cannot visit him for the reunion he had planned and they had promised to attend.
Goode has worked on an assembly line and lived modestly, dreaming of the children's success. Traveling by bus is not a big deal; he daydreams as the wheels spin and the miles of telephone wire, some of which he might have touched, go racing by.
Writer-director Kirk Jones avoids subtlety at all costs. For example, before DeNiro leaves, we see him address envelopes to each of the children. He starts in New York, but is unable to find Robert. We're allowed to see the inside of the apartment, which is empty, because Jones wants us to know DeNiro slides an envelope under the door. Kate Beckinsale, as Amy, is successful but not really happy. Sam Rockwell, as Robert, is a tympanist with an orchestra and not the conductor he said he was. We can guess that Drew Barrymore, as Rosie, is not a ballerina in Las Vegas, and sure enough, she isn't.
It's a story that could have shown some warmth, some aspects of relationships, some truth, but neither Giuseppe Tornatore, who wrote and directed the 1991 version, nor Jones seems interested in peering beneath the surface of his characters. A shame.
Opens today at multiple locations.
–Joe