Everybody's Fine 2009

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A tolerably sober alternative to holiday froth at the mutliplex. Read more

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: I didn't feel like I was watching characters who were related to each other. Every scene they are in, I felt like I was watching movie stars meeting each other for the first time. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's a relief to see Robert De Niro giving an honest, effective starring performance in a project that does not stink and that, in fact, rises to a respectable level of filmmaking proficiency. How long has it been? Read more

Mary F. Pols, MSN Movies: No feel-bad-feel-good film should be this chilly. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: False to the core. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Ultimately, Everybody's Fine becomes a holiday movie of rare sweetness; one likely to inspire a few calls home to Mom or Dad. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Even more than the remake that it is, Everybody's Fine plays like a homogenized, Hallmark Channel version of About Schmidt, with all the rough edges shaved off. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Everybody's Fine is a fitting title. The movie may well be fine. But it could have been a lot better. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It takes some effort to neutralize the charm of a modestly charismatic Robert De Niro performance. But Everybody's Fine does a stupendous job. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This is sentimental but dramatically solid. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: There's no challenge to this material, no real emotional pull, it's one of those films that simply rolls by until its right-from-the-beginning predictable ending. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Written and directed by British director Kirk Jones with guidance, apparently, from Dr. Phil... Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: Is it anything special? No, not really. But it's an agreeable and even touching little snapshot of family life. Read more

Glenn Whipp, Associated Press: De Niro offers a master class of mannered, minimalist acting. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Everybody's Fine -- a more subtle film than its advertising indicates -- works because it has a feel for little things. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Everyone works well under the perfunctory direction of Kirk Jones, but even with an easily resolved fade-out replete with turkey and cranberry sauce, Everybody's Fine has the look and taste of leftovers. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: De Niro plays his character completely contained, afraid to brim or overflow with emotion. The more he pulls back, the more he pulls in the audience. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The movie works because so much of what's on screen will resonate with viewers. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Promising start, but it unravels with an ill-advised confrontation scene and an ending that rings false. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: All that could redeem this thoroughly foreseeable unfolding would be colorful characters and good acting. Everybody's Fine comes close, but not close enough. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Another actor might have greedily milked the story's pathos quotient (believe me, there are plenty of opportunities). But De Niro hangs back, and the approach works. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Let the sentiment reveal itself. Don't veer into sentimentality. Don't push. Just trust the story. That's the whole trick with a movie like Everybody's Fine. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Jones clumsily establishes that De Niro's trade was producing telephone wires. And yet he can't communicate with his kids, see? The film includes so many shots of phone poles you'd think it was an AT&T documentary. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: What's finest about Everybody's Fine is to watch a good fella groping hopefully toward old age. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: If nothing else (and there ain't much else), Everybody's Fine does prove one thing: Even an actor with the gifts of Robert De Niro can't make bland interesting. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Expect an uncomfortable moment while watching Everybody's Fine. You're not the only one who edits events and polishes the truth to protect your parents -- and yourself. Worse, they know it. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Read more

Nina Caplan, Time Out: Forget Hollywood remakes; this is one film Ia(TM)d like to see reworked by an arthouse director and a pack of actors with smaller names and bigger reserves of subtlety. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Though De Niro gives a strong performance as a loving, if not always perceptive, dad, the film takes a treacly turn, grows truly sad and never fully recovers. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: The film is rigorously streamlined to deliver a good emotional uppercut by the end, and purely on the strength of its craft, it connects. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: It's all so much raging bull. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Everybody should see Everybody's Fine. But one piece of advice: Phone home first. Read more