Films: Everybody's Fine

Everybody's Fine

USA, 2009, 95 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: Drama, Family Issues, Social Issues, Women's Issues
Program: Contemporary World Cinema
Language: English

DIRECTOR: Kirk Jones
Producer: Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Ted Field, Glynis Murray, Gianni Nunnari
Editor: Andrew Mondshein
Screenwriter: Kirk Jones, Massimo de Rita, Tonino Guerra, Giuseppe Tornatore
Cinematographer: Henry Braham
Principal Cast: Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Robert DeNiro, Sam Rockwell, Katherine Moennig 
US Distributor: Miramax Films

Giuseppe Tornatore’s 1990 classic Stanno Tutti Bene tells the story of a widower who, lonely during the holidays, embarks upon a tour of Italy to visit his children (all named, appropriately enough in this bittersweet melodrama, for characters from Italian operas). Kirk Jones (Waking Ned Devine) transplants the film to contemporary America – where the members of extended families, separated by long distances, have increasingly have become strangers to one another. Jones adapted the original screenplay, cowritten by Tornatore and Tonino Guerra (a collaborator of Fellini, Antonioni, Tarkovsky, and Theo Angelopolous) to explore the ways in which an impromptu train trip serves as an education for a father (Robert De Niro, in the role originally played by Marcello Mastroianni) who comes to learn more about his grown children than he ever imagined – or, perhaps, wanted to know.

Featuring a quartet of splendid performances (Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, and Sam Rockwell join De Niro), this is a moving, deep, and surprisingly funny exploration of the family ties that bind.

Official Film Website

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