Everybody's Fine is a 2009 American drama film written and directed by Kirk Jones, and starring Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale. It is a remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's Italian film Everybody's Fine. In Brazil, Russia and Japan, the film was released direct-to-DVD.
Plot[]
Template:Long plot Frank Goode, a recently widowed retiree, used to work making telephone cables. He is getting ready for his children to come visit him, but they call to cancel on him at the last minute. He decides to visit them in stead.
Despite warnings from his doctor, Frank takes a train to New York City, to see the first of his children, David, the artist. But he is not home. His next visit is to daughter Amy in Chicago, who lives in an impressive suburban home. The atmosphere is uncomfortable and Amy tells him it is a bad time to visit. So the next morning, Amy takes Frank to the station to take the train to his son Robert in Denver.
As Frank travels to each of his children's homes, the film cuts to phone conversations (over the wires he made) between the siblings, even though Frank is adamant that each visit be a surprise. We hear that David is in some type of trouble in Mexico, and Amy is going there to find out what is happening; they agree to not tell their father any bad news until they know for sure.
Frank arrives in Denver expecting to see Robert conduct the city's orchestra. It turns out Robert is "only" a percussionist. Robert also tells Frank his visit is at a bad time, as the orchestra is flying to Europe the next day. So, within hours Frank prepares to take a bus to Las Vegas to visit his daughter Rosie. After missing his bus, Frank catches a ride part-way from a female truck driver. In a lonely hall of the train station, during an encounter with a drug addict, Frank loses his medicine. He has a dream that David is in trouble.
In Las Vegas, Rosie meets him in a stretch limo and tells him she was in a big show that he cannot visit, because it ended the previous week. She takes him to her apartment, where her friend Jilly brings over her baby for babysitting. Frank finds out the apartment is actually not Rosie's. During dinner, Frank asks Rosie why his children never talked to him, when they told their mother everything. She reveals that he always expected too much of them and he was never a good listener.
Frank flies back home but — without any more pills — he has a heart attack. Frank has another dream of his kids as young children and this reveals their secrets: Amy is separated from her husband, Robert lied about going to Europe and Rosie is really bisexual, as well as the mother of the child Jilly brought over. Frank awakens in hospital, with all of them around his bedside. They finally tell him that David has died from an overdose. That night, Frank has another dream, in which David appears and Frank tries to come to terms with his relation to his children.
After recovering, Frank visits his wife's grave and talks to her about pushing the kids too much and not trying to understand them more. He tells her everybody is fine. Frank goes back to New York and manages to buy a painting by David — a landscape showing telephone lines that are not connected. The last scene shows the family at Christmas. All three children left are around the house helping cook and decorate the tree. It is also revealed that Rosie and Jilly are a couple and are raising the baby together. Frank finally walks into the dining room, and they happily eat together. In the background David's painting is visible.
Cast[]
- Robert De Niro as Frank Goode[2]
- Drew Barrymore as Rosie Goode[2]
- Mackenzie Milone as Young Rosie
- Kate Beckinsale as Amy Goode[2]
- Lily Mo Sheen as Young Amy
- Sam Rockwell as Robert Goode[2]
- Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as Young Robert
- Austin Lysy as David Goode
- Chandler Frantz as Young David
- Katherine Moennig as Jilly, Rosie's partner
- Melissa Leo as Colleen, truck driver
- Lucian Maisel as Jack, Amy's Son
- Damian Young as Jeff, Amy's estranged husband
- James Frain as Tom, Amy's current partner
- Sonja Stuart as Jean Goode
- Mimi Lieber provides Jean Goode's voice
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Everybody's Fine (2009). Box Office Mojo.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Michael Fleming. "De Niro, Barrymore top 'Fine' cast", Variety, 2008-04-07.