Product: Everybody's Fine (2009)
Rating: 5.0
quite sad
I want to make something clear before writing this review- Everybody's Fine is most certainly NOT a comedy. It's in fact, quite the opposite. The description might lead you to think otherwise, but it's actually a really emotional drama story.Normally I'm not a fan of Robert De Niro, however whenever he stars (or plays lead role) in a family-oriented film, I'm always very interested in them.I suggest if you're someone who either worries or constantly thinks about your family -and specifically someone who's always concerned too much time has passed they by and there's no way to go back in time and change things- you should NOT watch this movie because you will most likely be in tears by the time it's over. The last 20 minutes are especially hard to keep from crying. This film might be even harder for older folks to watch, seriously.The storyline is about an old man (played by Robert De Niro) who one day decides to search for his children and find out about their lives, and what they've been up to over the years. So Robert's character travels across the country and makes unexpected visits to each of his children, and along the way finds out some really shocking things about them. Let's just say- his kids have definitely changed over the years.It's one of those films where you really have to pay close attention to all the details in order to notice all the surprising things about his kids, because there's a scene later involving a thunderstorm that might be confusing to understand if you don't pay extremely close attention early on.Without spoiling anything, the one thing that was never really made clear were the "in between" segments whenever Robert De Niro would travel to visit his kids. You see, there would be these conversations taking place between each of his kids over a telephone. What was confusing about this is that it was never really clear whether Robert De Niro was actually hearing these conversations, or not.It's a clever bit of storytelling because it leaves you guessing. I *assume* he wasn't really hearing his children talking to each other over the telephone, and it could be a case where Robert's character just *knew* anyway because he's an experienced father, and his fatherly instincts kicked in, but I can't be completely sure.Also, the song that plays over the credits sounds like Paul McCartney, and it's a REALLY good song. I'm not sure if it's really Paul McCartney singing that song or just a singer who happens to resemble his voice.Anyway, Everybody's Fine is a magnificent film because it does everything correctly. It makes you cry, it keeps your attention, and it's definitely a film worth watching.Update- August 2, 2011- I'm not really sure what exactly I was thinking when I thought Robert De Niro's character was able to hear the telephone conversations taking place through the communication wires- no, I don't believe he was.