Is everybody fine?

Two-dimensional focus limits a good film about an aging father | Marvin Olasky

Miramax Films

Everybody's Fine is rated PG-13 for thematic elements and one scene's bad language, but it should be FG-50, indicating its fitness particularly for fathers over 50. Others may also like it, but I confess that it jerked the tears from me, up to its contrived, mistaken Hollywood happy ending.

The film tells the story of Frank Goode (Robert De Niro), who has spent his adult life working in a wire factory to support his wife and four children. Now she is dead and they are adults who were used to communicating with him through her, so he sets out on a cross-country train and bus trip to visit each one. Ready to luxuriate in their happiness, he eventually learns that each is troubled.

Director Kirk Jones includes some brilliant touches. When Frank sees his grown children moving toward him, he momentarily visualizes them when they were small: Fathers over 50 know how that goes. Jones connects scenes by shots of the telephone wires that Frank spent his working life helping to manufacture: Ironically, he has helped multitudes to communicate but finds it hard to talk with his own family.