SimonJack "Everybody's Fine" is a film about a widower father reconnecting with his adult children spread across the U.S. Robert De Niro's Frank Goode apparently was a stern parent who pushed his kids to get ahead. But, in his retirement and loss of his wife, he longs for family connectedness that had always been provided by his wife. The kids could talk to her but not to him. This is a film about a dysfunctional family, with subsequent dysfunctions. The acting is mostly mediocre, with only De Niro giving a fine performance. The story becomes predictable as it unfolds. And, Frank's fear of flying is passé. By the 1990s, fear of flying was pretty much gone from the public consciousness. So, here, the hero takes to riding buses, trains, and catching a ride from a trucker. Instead of two- or three-hour flights from one city to another, Frank spends days on the road. Which slows the story down that much more, and needs filling with little anecdotes here and there with fellow passengers. All of that, combined with a dysfunctional family film makes for a mostly depressing and dull movie. By the 21st century, so-called "normal" or healthy families had become the exception. Hardly any family exists today that hasn't had some dysfunction with addictions or any number of social, health, mental or other problems. Most people don't flock to such films for entertainment. So, it's no wonder that the box office take for "Everybody's Fine" didn't come close to recovering its estimated $21 million budget.

Ethan Where do I even start? The film starts off with a promising dramatic premise of Robert De Niro portraying a recently widowed husband who tries to contact his children. And then it goes downhill from there.Who wrote this trashfire of a script? The dialogue is incredibly cliche and weak, and tries to establish emotional relevance and connection with quotes about urinating on walls. The film is supposed to be about De Niro reconnecting with his children, but really it's about him reconnecting with his one son who decided to pursue art and his other children (who are also lacking in achievement, to his disappointment) hiding the fact that he was arrested and died of an overdose. How are we supposed to connect to this otherwise heartbreaking event when the son was never shown on screen, and the only flashback sequence we get is of De Niro encouraging his son to pursue art in a god-awful line about urinating on walls? When the film tries to bring it back up towards the end, as if we're expected to cry for it, it's laughable. Everybody's NOT fine because everybody's not finely written in this trashfire of a film that lacks any emotional connection with its characters and fails to establish and develop the characters that matter because it simply can't handle decent and relatable dialogue.

katemiller-18083 I really enjoyed this film, as depressing as it was. I was already soaked with tears 30 minutes in, possibly exacerbated by the fact that my family is 7500km away. The character choices were great, and the reality of the family relationships made it very relatable. Parents and kids relationships change when the children become adults, and shifting loyalties cause strains in those relationships that were previously well-defined. It does annoy me when people act as if our elders are already part of history, like they're not still alive and there to enjoy and share with. Movies like this make me hope that they can be catalysts for change. That's all I can write now, because I want to Skype with my family... that's what this movie did to me.

tavm Because my sister recommended this last year, I finally ordered this from Netflix and just watched it with my mom. It stars Robert De Niro as a recently widowed father who, having been told by three of his four grown children that they can't come home for the holidays, decides to visit them unexpectedly at where they all live. The three he visits are played by Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, and Drew Barrymore. The fourth is mostly referred to until near the end. I'll stop there and just say this was a nice change of pace for De Niro, usually known to me for his violent movies he made with Martin Scorsese, as he mostly gives a restrained performance here and pretty well, too. The others are also good in what their roles require of them. There are also some dream sequences of the offspring as children that also provided some interesting insights of what De Niro's character thinks and knows they're not telling him that I also liked. Oh, and Paul McCartney's song during the end credits was also touching. So on that note, Everybody's Fine gets a recommendation from me.