Everybody's Fine

With a cast that includes Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell, and a premise that has echoes of Alexander Payne's About Schmidt, you could expect good things from this comedy drama. However, both are wasted on a routine remake of a much superior Italian original, Stanno Tutti Bene (1990). De Niro plays widower Frank Goode, who largely left the raising of his now grown-up kids to his late wife. When they all renege on their promises to join him for Christmas, Frank decides to make amends for past paternal indifference by paying them all surprise visits. In the process, he discovers that their apparently happy lives are not quite as hunky-dory as they have made them out to be. The performances are solid, but ultimately the film seems less well suited to an American sensibility than the original was to a European one.