Product: Everybody's Fine (2009)
Rating: 1.0
Kirk Jones, What The Heck Happened?!
I loved "Waking Ned Devine," which was written and directed by Kirk Jones, and greatly enjoyed "Nanny McPhee," which was also directed by Jones. So I felt confident that "Everybody's Fine," both written and directed by Kirk Jones, would have humor and heart.I was dead wrong.I'm tempted to list a few (trust me, VERY few) spoilers to show how barren this film was of ideas, or even a real story. I could describe everything that happens in a single sentence...but I couldn't tell you why any of it would be considered entertaining, enlightening, moving, or meaningful.In fairness, I'll say that the first five minutes or so of the film were deceptively good, and DeNiro made me care about his character in that short amount of time. But once he hit the road to see his various children, the production went over a cliff. Characters turned into caricatures, and the few stylistic flourishes only served to show how mundane and unimaginative the other 95% of the film was.I'd love to know if this movie really turned out the way Kirk Jones wanted it to, or if the Hollywood system somehow corrupted a story and vision that was originally worth sharing. In any event "Everybody's Fine" decidedly isn't.