'Everybody’s Fine' shows De Niro in fine form

Director: Kirk Jones

Cast: Robert De Niro, Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale

Cert: 12

A richly emotional and human film about parent-children relationships as widower Frank Goode (De Niro in one of his better performances of recent years), having been let down by his children who can’t quite make it to a family dinner, hits the road to find out if they’re all fine.

Never the best of fathers when they were growing up, he finds that they’re not fine … they’re the usual combination of mixed up, muddling through, making the most, needy human beings.

But in Frank’s quest to re-connect we throw our support and sympathy behind him, normal and complex everybody may be but they need one another … if only they could see it.

The film has it’s funny moments but largely it plays on the heavy side, which is not in any way to diminish its impact.

Star Rating: 4/5