Movie Review - Everybody's Fine

Everybody's Fine (2009)

Starring Robert DeNiro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, and Melissa Leo 

Directed by Kirk Jones

Everybody's Fine was a big failure at the box office last holiday season, but after watching I can't understand why.  Sure, it's overly dramatic, but it's a lovely little film featuring some nice performances from all of the lead actors, particularly Robert DeNiro who has certainly slummed his way through movies in the last decade or so.

It's been a few months since Frank Goode's (DeNiro) wife has passed away and he is eagerly looking forward to a get-together with all of his grown adult children.  However, when they all bail on him, Frank decides to travel around the country and visit each one, hoping to reconnect with them and become a greater part of their lives.  

That's the story in a nutshell.  It's simple and it's kind of sweet and it surprisingly works.  Director and screenwriter Kirk Jones has crafted a really lovely film in both appearance and substance.  While he admittedly gets a tad heavy-handed towards the end, it never felt too sugary or overly sentimental.

The reason for that, in part, is the pleasant and understated performance from Mr. DeNiro.  In recent years, DeNiro has veered way over-the-top whether that be in the godawful Fockers movies, Analyze That, or pretty much anything else in his recent oeuvre.  Here, DeNiro throws aside the caricature of his former actorly self that he's been playing for the last decade and instead is simply an aging, hard-working father who misses his wife and wants to form a better relationship with his kids.  It was actually a surprising departure for DeNiro and a track I'd like to see him continue on in years to come. 

DeNiro is joined by the lovely Kate Beckinsale as his eldest daughter and Sam Rockwell as his eldest son and both of them make the most of the roles.  Beckinsale, in particular, surprised me.  Not that I've even seen the Underworld series of films, but that's what I associate her most with.  I keep forgetting that she gave a bravura performance in 2008's Nothing But the Truth (rent it...trust me), and while her performance in this flick didn't blow me away, it certainly made me remember that the lady can actually act.  [And, although the less said the better, even Drew Barrymore didn't annoy me in this as much as she usually can, although she is playing the same exact character she plays in every other movie...seriously, how is she still popular?]

I honestly watched this because it was the holiday season and I remember there being a tree on the poster...don't be fooled into thinking this is a holiday movie, however.  It's not in the slightest.  Nevertheless, despite that misleading advertising, Everybody's Fine is a flick that surpassed my middling expectations and actually won me over quite a bit with its charm.

The RyMickey Rating: B

Movie Review - Whiteout (2009)

Starring Kate Beckinsale, Gabriel Macht, and Tom Skerritt
Directed by Dominic Sena

Although I didn't know how the perpetrator was involved, I guessed the identity of the felon within ten minutes of the film. Alright, now that I've patted myself on the back, let's move on.

Carrie Stetko is a U.S. Marshall doing a stint in Antarctica, dealing with various small crimes and misdemeanors. Somehow, someone discovers a dead body of a Russian guy out on some ice, and while investigating the crime, Carrie unearths a years-old secret that makes her begin to question even the intentions of her closest friends.

There's maybe a good movie here (emphasis on maybe), but it just ends up being a little too silly for its own good. The dialogue here is ridiculously laughable. The musical score foreshadows every single event. The final action scene was so incomprehensible and went on for such a long period of time that I couldn't wait for it to be over. People were slipping and sliding all over the place and it was impossible to tell who was who and where they were in relation to others.

And it's a shame really because Kate Beckinsale is actually decent in this. Sure, her role is given some ridiculously silly backstory and she isn't really given a whole lot to do, but I liked her in this. I also appreciated the fact that the movie didn't really stoop to cheap thrills. Sure, it didn't really succeed on several levels, but I liked that it wasn't simply stupid...I just wish that there could've been a little more oomph to the story.

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Movie Review - Nothing But the Truth (2008)

Starring Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, Angela Bassett, Alan Alda, Vera Farmiga, David Schwimmer, and Noah Wyle
Written and Directed by Rod Lurie

Loosely based on true events, Washington, D.C., newspaper reporter Rachel Armstrong (Beckinsale) has just published a report revealing the name of a C.I.A. operative -- Erica Van Doren (Farmiga) -- whose findings were ignored by the President. Rachel's hope is that she is a catalyst behind exposing a major problem with the presidential administration who ordered airstrikes on Venezuela despite the fact that Van Doren said the Venezuelan government wasn't really doing anything wrong. Refusing to reveal her source that exposed Van Doren as a C.I.A. agent, Armstrong is held in contempt of court and is sent to prison.

This movie starts out quickly and doesn't really stop moving, which is rather surprising considering it's part-courtroom drama (which tend to plod along sometimes). Director and writer Rod Lurie doesn't really create a bum note in the flick. He creates a great fictional story based around the Valerie Plame incident of the early aughts. While it definitely takes sides in support of the newspaper worker, the movie (which could've been political) doesn't veer that way at all. And the ending...quite the surprise...

Kate Beckinsale is the best I've seen her (though her British accent wasn't quite suppressed), balancing both the gritty newspaper side and the maternal side of her character quite well. There's an incident that happens an hour into the movie that allows Beckinsale to go to another emotional level that I wasn't expecting. Matt Dillon and Noah Wyle are also quite good as dueling attorneys on the case. And Vera Farmiga, who helped make Orphan be a winner (and was so good in The Departed, too), also shines here. She has really become one of my favorite actresses working today, and I think it's time I start looking back over her oeuvre.

It's a shame that the producers -- the Yari Film Group -- went bankrupt prior to this flick's being released and weren't able to push it for Oscars last year the way it deserved to be pushed. In a year of weak Best Picture contenders, this should've at least been in the running.

The RyMickey Rating: A-