Everybody's Fine (2009 film)

Everybody's Fine
Directed by	Kirk Jones
Produced by	Gianni Nunnari Ted Field Vittorio Cecchi Gori Glynis Murray
Written by	Kirk Jones
Starring	Robert De Niro Drew Barrymore Kate Beckinsale Sam Rockwell Katherine Moennig
Music by	Dario Marianelli
Cinematography	Henry Braham
Editing by	Andrew Mondshein
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	December 4, 2009 (2009-12-04)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$21 million
Box office	$15,986,449

Everybody's Fine is a 2009 American comedy-drama film that is written and directed by Kirk Jones, and stars Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, and Kate Beckinsale. It is a remake of the Giuseppe Tornatore's Italian film Stanno Tutti Bene. Brazil, Russia and Japan will only see a Direct-to-DVD release for this film.

Plot

Frank Goode (Robert De Niro), whose wife recently passed away, is getting ready for his children to come visit him. One by one though, each of his children call to cancel on him at the last minute. Feeling a bit down by the rejections, Frank decides to head out on a cross-country trip, visiting each of his kids.

After visiting his physician and being warned about his health that he should not be travelling far distances, Frank takes a train to New York City, to see one of his sons, David (Austin Lysy). David doesn't appear to be home and never shows up so Frank leaves him a card and leaves town to see his other children. While he's waiting for David, he sees one of David's paintings in a nearby art gallery window.

Next visit is to daughter Amy (Kate Beckinsale) in Chicago, who tells him it's a bad time to visit. She had turned down her father's earlier invitation to visit, saying that her son Jack was sick. However, once he gets to Amy's house, Frank realizes Jack wasn't sick and Amy was just making up an excuse. Frank hits a few golf balls with Jack in the yard of their impressive suburban home. Dinner is uncomfortable with tension between Jack and his father. The next morning, Frank accompanies Amy to her fancy downtown office and hears her agency's pitch for a TV ad. She takes him to the train station to visit his son Robert in Denver. While waiting, Amy introduces her father to a male co-worker.

As Frank travels to each of his children's homes, the film cuts to phone conversations between the siblings. David is in some type of trouble in Mexico, and Amy is going there to find out what is happening; the sisters and Robert (Sam Rockwell) agree to not tell their father about David until they know for sure.

Frank arrives in Denver expecting to see Robert conduct the city's orchestra. It turns out Robert is "only" a percussionist. Robert also tells Frank his visit is at a bad time, as the orchestra is flying to Europe the next day, but this is only a lie. So within hours Frank prepares to take a bus to Las Vegas to visit his daughter Rosie (Drew Barrymore). Frank is adamant that each visit be a surprise, but Robert calls Rosie to warn her of his arrival.

In a lonely hall of the bus station, during an encounter with a drug addict, Frank offers money to the drug addict. He takes it but they get into a quarrel about him being grateful for Frank's gesture. Through physical force, the drug addict tries to take all of Frank's money but fails. As a result, Frank's medicine bottle falls on the floor. To retaliate, the drug addict stomps on the medicine and crushes them. Frank scrapes up some of the crushed pills because he must take his medicine on a daily basis. He calls his doctor for a prescription refill but he doesn't tell the doctor that he is hundreds of miles from home, traveling against doctor's advice. He has a dream that David is in trouble.

After missing his train, Frank arrives in Las Vegas late, catching a ride part-way from a female truck driver. Rosie meets him at the station in a stretch limo and tells him she was in a big show that ended the previous week. She takes him to her huge, fancy apartment, where her friend Jilly (Katherine Moennig) brings over her baby for babysitting. Frank overhears a message being left on an answering machine, indicating the apartment is actually borrowed from Rosie's friend. During dinner, Frank asks Rosie why his adult children never talked to him and told him things, when they told their mother everything. He is not comfortable, having a feeling that all his kids are lying to him.

Frank flies back home but — without any more pills — he has a heart attack in the plane's lavatory. Frank has another dream of his kids as young children; in the dream, everyone's sitting at the picnic table outside. Although his kids are all young again, they're discussing all of their problems as adults. He knows Amy's husband has left her for another woman and that's why Jack was so hostile around him. Amy's co-worker that he met at the train station is a man that Amy is dating. It's revealed that Jilly's baby is actually Rosie's baby (their mother knew about it, but never mentioned it to their father). David tells his dad that he can't tell him where he is and starts laughing. The kids and their mother always kept the unpleasant truth from Frank. While Frank thought he was encouraging his kids, they thought he was pressuring them and would be disappointed in how their lives really turned out. He ends up having the heart attack while this dream is occurring. Next scene is in the hospital, where he wakes up in bed with Amy, Robert, and Rosie standing around. Frank tells them that he knows something's wrong with David and asks what's going on. All three children start crying and it is revealed that David has died from a drug overdose in Mexico, which prompts Frank to cry as well. During the night, Frank has a vision about a young David being in his hospital room. Frank tells him how he was never disappointed in him and he never would be as David grew up.

Frank then visits his wife's grave and talks to her. He tells her all about the kids and how they're all doing fine. Frank goes back to the Art Gallery below David's apartment to buy David's painting, but it has already been sold. The girl at the desk tells him that if any of David's art comes through, she'd let him know. After leaving, she runs out to tell Frank about how great his son was, upon realizing the family connection. She shows him another painting by David that is more appropriate to him — a landscape showing PVC-covered power lines made out of glue and macaroni (Frank had worked in a factory making PVC-covered cable for years). The last scene shows the family at Christmas. Frank is cooking the turkey and remembers that he never had the heart to tell his wife hers was overcooked. All three children are around the house helping cook and decorate the tree. It's also revealed that Rosie and Jilly are a couple and are raising the baby together. Amy's co-worker whom she is dating is also at the gathering. The film ends with Frank walking into the dining room, to his family, and a screenshot of everyone sitting at the table together.

Cast

• Robert De Niro as Frank Goode
• Drew Barrymore as Rosie Goode
  • Mackenzie Milone as the young Rosie
• Kate Beckinsale as Amy Goode
  • Lily Mo Sheen as the young Amy
• Sam Rockwell as Robert Goode
  • Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as the young Robert
• Austin Lysy as David Goode
  • Chandler Frantz as the young David
• Katherine Moennig as Jilly, Rosie's partner
• Melissa Leo as Colleen, the truck driver
• Lucian Maisel as Jack, Amy's son
• Damian Young as Jeff, Amy's estranged husband
• James Frain as Tom, Amy's current partner
• Sonja Stuart as Jean Goode
  • Mimi Lieber provides Jean Goode's voice

Production

Filming took place in Connecticut and New York City, including several scenes filmed at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Reception

Critical reaction

The film received mixed reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 47% of 130 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.3 out of 10. The site's general consensus is that "A calm, charismatic performance from Robert De Niro nearly saves the movie, but ultimately, Everybody's Fine has the look and feel of a stereotypical Christmas dramedy." Among the site's notable critics, 52% gave the film a positive write-up, based on a sample of 25. On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from film critics, the film is considered to have "mixed or average reviews", with a rating score of 47 based on 25 reviews.

Michael Medved gave Everybody's Fine two stars (out of four), calling the film "...bleak, deeply depressive, and utterly depressing..." But he also added that "DeNiro's acting is intense and moving as always."

Overall, the critics consensus praises Robert De Niro for having "intensity and presence that shines through even when he's not playing Travis Bickle/Jake LaMotta types, "but the movie becomes overly sentimental, and the supporting players aren't given three-dimensional characters to play."

Box office

The film "unspooled in 10th [place] with $4 million." As of December 6, the film has grossed $4,027,000. It closed on December 24, 2009 after a brief 3-week run.

Awards

Everybody's Fine was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding Film - Wide Release". Drew Barrymore will also receive the Vanguard Award at the 21st GLAAD Media Awards ceremony, in part due to her performance in the film.

Soundtrack

Paul McCartney wrote the ballad "(I Want To) Come Home" for the movie after seeing an advance screening. Though he wrote the song from the perspective of De Niro's character, afterwards, he realized it could also be heard from the adult children's view. It led to a Golden Globe nomination for Best Song.

Home media

Everybody's Fine was released on DVD February 23, 2010.

External links

• Official website
• Everybody's Fine at the Internet Movie Database
• Everybody's Fine at AllRovi
• Everybody's Fine at Rotten Tomatoes
• Everybody's Fine at Metacritic
• Everybody's Fine at Box Office Mojo