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A review: Everybody's fine
EVERYBODY'S FINE (12a) 1 hr 39 mins Stars: Robert de Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell Director: Kirk Jones Opens at the Belper Ritz on April 24th
Sometimes when a relative or friend says "I'm fine", you sense they're not. That's the intention behind this film's title. It also led me to consider the fact that not all has been fine with Robert de Niro's career.
Post-Scorsese, the much heralded gangster and raging bull has made some dodgy choices including a few dismal comedies. Meet The Fockers? I wish I hadn't.
However, he's fine here, honest. The comedy in this film is low-key and bittersweet and in calling on a performance of naturalism and understatement, de Niro plays the 60-plus everyman with effortless mastery.
Good to see him playing his own age, too. It's also refreshing to see a senior in the central role, an issue not lost on British director Kirk Jones who broke the mould 12 years ago with Waking Ned.
Jones has re-made Giuseppe Tornatore's Stanno tutto bene (his follow-up to Cinema Paradiso) and several critics who have seen it believe this is a rare example of a Hollywood pic bettering the foreign original.
It's certainly heartfelt, humorous and touching as we follow de Niro's lonely widower Frank on a journey of reconnection and reconciliation with his four adult children. All four cancel a family reunion at home so Frank decides to make a road trip across America (his health won't allow him to fly) and surprise each of them in turn.
It's clear that Frank's wife was the parent closer to the kids, evidenced by the many sequences where the camera shows us what Frank is seeing when he claps eyes on them: sweet, unthreatening prepubescent kiddies.
With the exception of one son who simply isn't there when dad calls, his offspring seem uneasy in his presence and unhappy with their lives.
Family secrets and lies are unravelled in a quietly measured movie which frequently rings true, not least in Frank's documentary-style journey sequences which are interspersed with delightful cameos from fellow travellers.
It occasionally strays into the sentimental but there's continual satisfaction in seeing such a nuanced central performance from a craftsman of the art, with convincing support from Beckinsale, Barrymore and Rockwell.
In fact, everybody's fine.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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