Realistic, gentle, and a very common real life family drama. A Lonely widower travels across the ­states in a fraught attempt to round up his now grownup busy children for a ­family get-together since their mother's funeral. Wrapped around a pretty simple story yet very cleverly ­constructed. DeNiro gives a brilliant performance and still at his best while taking a calm, careworn, less iconic role. British writer-director Kirk Jones has persuaded him to turn the heat down. DeNiro plays Frank Goode - A retired guy with cardiac and ­ respiratory problems, struggling to keep up. With a strong ­ supporting cast, there is a third-act ­crisis that shares Frank's stunned ­incredulity. A film is overall very real, refreshing in a sense, yet very touching nonetheless.~ @asifahsankhan

I liked this one quite a bit. Robert DeNiro is excellent and ultimately what makes this so watchable. He plays a widower who sets out to visit each of his 3 grown children only to discover that they've been hiding their problems from him. I liked the idea that he had to reconnect with his kids because his entire relationship with them had been through his wife. I have seen this scenario play out myself through a couple of friends. Its awkward and tough going.Nothing too exciting really happens here plot wise, but the story still kept my attention as 'Frank' travels around the country from NY to Chicago to Denver, to Vegas, meeting other lonely people and basically intruding on his children's lives.There is a bit of a mystery involved regarding what's in the envelopes he hand delivers to each of them and also in what has happened to his son David. I enjoyed DeNiro's scenes with Drew Barrymore a lot even if her secret did seem a bit far fetched. Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell & Austin Lysy play the other kids. I also enjoyed the flashbacks, where he sees his grown children as young kids. Ultimately I felt sad for Frank.I'm not sure why this is being marketed as a Christmas movie when it has nothing to do with the season. Even the (bad) poster has a tree on it. In actuality there is only 1 short scene involving the holiday. 3/28/15

Thank God I didn't read the dreary reviews before watching this movie. For some reason, lots of people find it "depressing". (Which depresses me, since Everybody's Fine is an accurate reflection of real life. Maybe someone's in denial?) And professional critics for the most part don't find it... something... enough. But I'm a critical viewer, and I loved it. Robert DeNiro is brilliant and completely recognisable as a father of grown kids. Maybe the people who didn't like it are just too young to have been there: men of my father's generation and before, who thought their main job was to make money and hector their kids into "succeeding" during the few minutes per week they spent together. I knew this character the instant I saw him; the opening scene -- which has no dialogue -- says it all. The dad is also deeply sympathetic, which isn't easy in a movie based on his past mistakes. But I love this guy. If you knew him in real life, you will too. But what makes Everybody's Fine so powerful is that it's a mystery; clues drop subtly, around a main character who isn't as dumb, or as inflexible, as his family thinks he is. We figure out the truth along with him. The white-lying portrayed is also completely realistic; the unanswered questions kept me trying to solve the mystery.The grown kids (whom the father still tellingly calls "my children") are a bit stock, I'll give the critics that. But the performances are good; better than some reviewers have allowed. Each one is simultaneously the same and different; again, realistic. And the grandson is brilliant. Lucian Maisel manages to play it just teenaged enough to be real (and charming), without quite stepping over the line to obnoxious. He's sarcastic and outspoken, but remains inside the story. If you haven't seen this movie, stop reading the reviews. See it and make up your own mind. I'm glad I did.

Frank Goode (Robert De Niro) is newly widowed, and eagerly waits for his grown children to return for a gathering. However everybody cancels on him. So he decides to go all over the country to visit each one. When he visits David in NY, nobody's home. His other three kids Amy (Kate Beckinsale), Robert (Sam Rockwell), and Rosie (Drew Barrymore) all know that David is in trouble with drugs in Mexico. But none of them are willing to tell him any bad news in any of their lives. It is a family dysfunction where the mother was the one who listened while Frank dismissed.This is a sad little indie. De Niro isn't using all of his power. He's leaving a lot of things unsaid. So does everybody else. I do wish that he play a tougher character. It would be more compelling. However I do understand that writer/director Kirk Jones is making a certain type of character. He's not a bad father. He's just a little more closed off.In many ways, this character suffers from being too regular. He's not bombastic, or truly meek. He's just an old fashion guy who always asking "Are you Happy?" Inevitably, the only answer that can come back is "Everybody's Fine."