Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, director Kirk Jones, and Robert DeNiro introducing "Everybody's Fine"
The deeply moving story behind Miramax Films’ Everybody’s Fine, starring Robert DeNiro, Kate Beckinsale, Drew Barrymore, and Sam Rockwell, is based on an Italian film called Stano Tutti Bene. It is about family and the dynamics within- a hardworking father who was never at home but when he was, liked to talk rather than listen to his children, a nurturing mother who was the nucleus of the family and served the role of the listener to her children, and the kids always feeling more comfortable sharing their lives, feelings, and imperfections with her because they knew how hard their Dad pushed them to be the “best” or in their minds, his idea of perfection. Something they never felt they were. Unfortunately, the mother dies and Frank (DeNiro) is left to communicate and keep his drifting family together, something that he has never had to do. The way he decides to do this is by embarking on a cross country journey with surprise visits to each of his adult children. And even though he thought he would be the one to surprise his kids, in the end, he was the one who was shocked to find out the truth of his children that he knew so little about.
Stars Kate Beckinsale, Robert DeNiro, and Drew Barrymore photo credit: photo agency
An endearing Robert DeNiro beautifully captures the essence of this lonely man trying to desperately reach out to his offspring, displaying a fatherly strength and paradoxically, sheer vulnerability physically and emotionally. Both Kate Beckinsale and Drew Barrymore play his loving daughters who are searching for his approval, but don’t want to share the truth with him of how their lives really are. At the world premiere last night during AFI FEST at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, director Kirk Jones introduced DeNiro as “everyone’s favorite father” and when the notoriously private silver screen icon assumed the podium, he remarked that this project was “special.” And that it definitely is.
Miramax Films’ Everybody’s Fine will be released nationwide on December 4th, 2009.
