by Frank Calvillo
There have been plenty of people who have been a bit hard on Robert De Niro since this century began. After his monumental success with Meet the Parents, it seems that critics and cinephiles alike have never ceased to pick apart at virtually every career choice the actor has made in the last decade and a half.
The De Niro bashing continues this week with the release of The Intern, in which the acting legend stars opposite Anne Hathaway and Rene Russo in the comedy of a senior citizen who forges an unexpected friendship with the young CEO of an upstart company.
The Intern looks to be another title in a list of films which has De Niro critics once again groaning that the actor now favors “paycheck” quality work instead of the kinds of films which require him to exercise his renowned chameleon-like talent.
If the naysayers had bothered to notice back in 2009, they would have realized that the dramatic comedy Everybody’s Fine proved that the two-time Oscar winner is still capable of delivering a performance that rivals some of his best.
A remake of an early ’90s Italian film, Everybody’s Fine focuses on recent widower Frank (De Niro), who discovers that his relationships with his grown children Rosie (Drew Barrymore), Amy (Kate Beckinsale), and Robert (Sam Rockwell) are as distant as they come after each of them cancels on a planned weekend visit home. On a whim, Frank decides to journey across the country to visit each of his kids in an effort to reconnect with the strangers he calls his family.
There’s an undeniable elegiac quality to Everybody’s Fine that hits right from the start. For decades, Frank was a man defined by both his work and his marriage. Now that both are gone, he is faced with the frighteningly real question: “Who am I now?” Even more scary for Frank is the realization of looking back on a life which he has more or less missed out on. The journey he embarks on sees him in a way entering the real world for the first time in an effort to connect with his children and be a part of the worlds they have made for themselves. If there’s one thing Everybody’s Fine does extremely well, its conveying the deep-seeded human need for belonging and connection; two emotions so rarely captured in such a subtle and beautiful way.
More than just the story of one man’s eye-opening journey however, Everybody’s Fine speaks to the thousands of generations of grown parents and children who are strangers to one another; each leading separate lives without each other. Secrets such as Robert’s less than stellar career, Amy’s divorce, and Rosie’s too perfect Vegas lifestyle are all discoveries to Frank upon his visits; shocking him, but not anyone watching the film.
The fact that none of Frank’s children have divulged any of the private details of their lives to their father comes as no surprise. It’s difficult for most children to confide in their parents once they grow up. Their trials and tribulations, fears and failures, become harder to accept once they get older and the idea of feeling like a disappointment in front of a parent, or the notion that they might actually be able to relate, is not even an option. It never seems to occur to Rosie, Amy, and Robert (nor to millions of grown up children around the world regarding their own parents), that Frank would love them no matter what, if they would only give him a real chance to discover who they are.
As Frank’s three children, each of the seasoned actors manages to hold their own without getting lost in De Niro’s presence. The most noteworthy of all is Barrymore, who has never been lovelier and more serene than she is here, especially during her dinner table conversation with her father.
Anyone who watches Everybody’s Fine however, is more than likely doing so to see De Niro, and rightfully so. The actor turns in one of the more thoughtful performances of his career in what is most often a one-man show. The actor so expertly captures Frank’s wondering quality and injects him with an openness and intelligence that instantly endears him to the audience. Its the kind of on-screen magic De Niro does so well and the type of role many wish would come his way more often.
Thanks to the dissolution of Miramax (the film’s distributor) at the time of release, Everybody’s Fine came and went at the box office without much publicity or marketing from the studio. Critics who reviewed the film however, praised De Niro’s work, but failed to be won over by the film’s simple, yet meaningful story of a family trying to reconnect. Everybody’s Fine did manage a bit of awards acclaim by way of Paul McCartney’s touching closing theme “I Want to (Come Home),” which beautifully echoed many of the film’s sentiments.
I will admit that not every film De Niro has signed on for over the last 15 years has been a winner. Yet after achieving as much as De Niro has over the course of his long career, the actor has more than earned the right to choose the projects he wants without having to explain himself. If not all of them turn out to be masterpieces, then so be it. In the end, there will always be films such as Everybody’s Fine, which reinforce just how great of an actor De Niro is and highlight the unmatched power he manages to bring to the screen.
