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Frank's children live far apart, and he's always been told by their late mother -- the family's primary communication hub -- that they're doing well: Amy (Kate Beckinsale) is in advertising, Robert (Sam Rockwell) plays in a symphony, Rosie (Drew Barrymore) follows her showbiz dreams as a dancer in a Las Vegas show, and David (Austin Lysy) is making his way as an artist in Manhattan. But when Frank starts showing up unannounced, the kids look a little uncomfortable, and he becomes more aware of their complicated lives.
Despite some standard movieland genetic disparity -- Beckinsale, Rockwell, and Barrymore have appeared in several movies together in different combinations, never in danger of being mistaken for siblings -- the actors make a convincing family. They each get a handful of scenes, like the visited couples in Away We Go, and use that time economically, creating quick impressions of relationships that aren't quite close, but aren't quite fractured, instead lying in that familiar space between. The writer-director, Kirk Jones (Waking Ned Devine), adapting the Italian film Stanno Tutti Bene, knows his way around low-key, recognizable awkwardness, and never overplays the dysfunction into crazy-family farce. In other words, this isn't Meet the Children.
In fact, Jones barely brushes comedy at all. He takes greater advantage of Rockwell's hangdog, slightly seedy scrappiness or Barrymore's innate sweetness than either of their comic abilities. The low-key observations are refreshing at first. But by avoiding one set of cliches -- this is not actually the faux-dysfunctional warmedy you might expect from its Christmassy poster -- the film zigzags into a whole other set of needless cinematic devices: Frank sometimes catches mind's-eye glimpses of his progeny as younger children, voiceovers clue the audience in on what the kids aren't telling their dad, and the score works overtime, as so many scores do, to let you know what's happening onscreen is poignant and bittersweet.
And it sometimes is, in spite of itself. For a movie that loses its way in melodrama, revealing an overly schematic approach to Frank's kids' problems, Everybody's Fine has a surprising number of effective scenes -- especially early on, before the revelations and explanations kick in. If the film had been left to the promise of its early moments, it could've been a sharp little showcase for its performances, particularly De Niro. Instead, we have a movie that can't help but tidy up after itself, taking its title perhaps a touch too seriously.
The DVD includes deleted scenes and a Paul McCartney music video.
Dinner's good, too.
