"EVERYBODY'S FINE" ('09) ... Or so they claim,
but they really aren't in this study of a family featuring Robert De Niro as a widower and father of a grown family of four.
De Niro stars as Frank Goode, an aptly chosen surname with metaphorical implications given the theme of the story. This small
little film with its top flight casting has slipped quietly into the theaters and will doubtless be trampled by the end of
the year crush between holiday blockbusters and movies that are Oscar contenders.
It
is decidedly not the comedy that the previews have suggested that it might be. Instead it is a bittersweet story about a dad
who has raised his four children to excel, and now they are afraid to be honest with him because they fear that they have
not lived up to his expectations. (I might argue that living a lie doesn't live up to anybody's expectations, but the children
all seem to feel that sugar coating their lives is better than the truth.) It seems that they had leveled with their mother
and depended upon her to filter the news to her husband. Now that she has passed away, they don't know how to communicate
honestly with their dad.
Frank
Goode has spent his life as a utility lineman whose hard work has put his children through school and given them the leg up
in their lives that he never had. Now he lives alone in a small ranch style home in a suburb of Connecticut where he lives
for the rare visits from his children and grandchild. His lungs and possibly his heart have been damaged by being around the
chemicals used to string those utility lines, so he is under strict orders from his doctor to take his medication and not
to exert himself. While awaiting everyone's arrival, he cleans up the house, puts out a small wading pool, and generally prepares
for the family visit.
When
his children all bow out at the last minute, Frank is left with nothing to do and feeling crushed by their absences. He decides
on the spur of the moment to surprise them each with a visit, a visit that will have to be by bus or train since he is under
strict orders not to fly. Frank's first stop is to the apartment of his eldest son, who does not even appear to be living
there. Subsequent visits to a daughter (Kate Beckinsale), another son (Sam Rockwell), and the youngest daughter (Drew Barrymore),
will provide ample evidence that all of his children are living lives far different than what he has been led to believe.
Before
and after each visit the telephone lines that he might have strung hum with chatter between the siblings about a looming crisis
that represents the 800 pound gorilla of family news that they all conspire to keep hidden from their dad in order to maintain
those happy faces at all costs. "Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." (Grade B, possibly rent it.)
