Product: Everybody's Fine (2009)
Rating: 2.0
Nice. Easy. No Effort Required.
I'm dismayed to realize that this film was written by the same folks that gave us "Waking Ned Devine", which was a warm and funny film, and a fun story. This movie is like "About Schmidt" the Lite Version. Like Jack Nicholson's character, DeNiro's Mr. Goode is recently widowed (although the wife passes before the movie starts); she's the one who kept in touch with the kids. So, alienated widower dad goes on a road trip to visit each of his kids, with an envelope for each; and nobody knows he's coming. Surprise!Well, Surprise on him actually because one of his sons is in trouble, but no one wants to tell Dad. And, Dad's afraid of flying so he starts out on a train bound for NYC, and there we learn that he made the PFC covering for the wires that run along the track, the road, and all over America. At that point the viewer begins to suspect this movie was conceived on a commuter train as the writer, or someone, watched the gently swooping visual rythym of the wires running alongside the tracks. Then, as much of the plot is advanced, and the audience brought up to speed with what was set in motion before we got in front of the TV, by way of telephone conversations we (the audience) overhear while the camera focuses in on the overhead wires, we began to think that this whole plane phobia is also a plot device.So, Dad shows up and nobody can spend any time with him, because they've all got plans to go out of town, including one of his daughters, who is headed to Mexico to find their brother. But no one tells Dad. Dad, meanwhile gets his heart meds crushed, which one immediately suspects is also just another plot device, and sure enough, he ends up in the hospital after refusing the sensible idea of going to a pharmacy and getting another Rx. Now he has a dream of his aged, widowed self, at a picnic table in his back yard, with his kids, as kids, but explaining why they never tell him the truth about anything, and the audience is finally as much in the know as pretty much anybody else.So, Dad goes home. By plane. Why not? We don't need the wires anymore. There's a bit more, but you'll want something fresh to nibble on if you watch this.My partner and I both come from similar families. Mine won't talk about bad news, his simply says "Everything's Fine" even if someone just had a heart attack. But even with that personal connection this film just doesn't work as anything more than fluff. Again, I point to "About Schmidt" where a similar character, played by Jack Nicholson, in a similar situation, heads out in a motorhome he and his wife bought for vacations he never wanted to take; to see his daughter as she prepares to marry a truly flaky fiance; but the mother in law is a hoot. Along the way Jack nearly becomes a homewrecker, in a trailer park. Things happen, people don't work out. In this film a nice little romance is suggested and then abandoned. He hits all the conventional spots along the road (except for Seattle) and...yawn...the movie ends with, well I can't tell you that.There are a lot of terrible movies out there. Anything with Adam Sandler, for example. So this isn't Bad, it just isn't very good either. Like Kool Aid instead of nice fresh juice. I'd put it off so you can see the stuff you've been putting off, and if you forget about it, well, so be it. Or maybe watch it with Shirley MacLanes "Carolina", which is slightly better, Kool Aid with Seven Up. They would make a nice shut-in afternoon, this winter during a storm, or this fall in a hurricane shelter.