Product: Everybody's Fine (2009)
Rating: 3.0
OK drama misrepresented as a comedy
It seems to be a trend to dress up sad, even depressing, movies as comedies or as "feel good" movies, when in reality, they leave you feeling sad or depressed. Look at the pictures, everyone looks happy; look at the title: "Everybody's Fine"; even most reviewers will mislead, perhaps believing that it's a spoiler to tell you that this movie involves a tragic death. Yes, the reviewers will tell you that this is a drama and not a comedy but, to me, there's a big difference between a drama where people are dealing with difficult aspects of life and of being human, and one with a tragic death.And the movie itself, ends with DeNiro's character saying that "everybody's fine". Dead is fine??? I know of a parent who lost her grown son to a tragedy, she would never have said, at the first holiday after his death, that everybody's fine. That's the weakness of movies like this one, besides their misrepresentation which could be considered a lack of truth in advertizing, they also misrepresent the profound feelings that are natural in situations like this. Yes, they show sadness when the characters first learn of the tragedy, but in order to give us a "feel good" movie, the character's seem to get over the sadness inhumanly quickly and are laughing and saying things that you wouldn't hear from real live people in those circumstances. While I think it's right and good to have some light moments even in dramas, it should be done realistically.Having said that, I liked the characters, the acting was good and the story was a good, sad, drama. If that's what you're looking for, go ahead and enjoy this one, just be prepared for parts that don't ring true and that somehow trivialize the pain of loss for a "feel good" effect that cannot truly be associated with the situation.