I am currently doing a Tornatore retrospective, and this was the third major film of his directing career. His overwrought debut in The Professor in 1986 was followed up by the enormously successful Cinema Paradiso in 1988. That film was about nostalgia, and so was this piece, Everybody's Fine, about a father who is seldom contacted by his children; a familiar theme that millions of us are now experiencing, made in 1990,
The film shows the lies we tell ourselves and our family members so that they and we will be happier. The film points out that no one is perfectly happy; and it appears that this fact is a truism in modern society.
Marcello Mastroianni, a very gifted actor. Plays the old man, and the film is ably directed by Tornatore, but it just does not have the energy of his previous films. The musical score is quite forgettable as well. However, there are two homage scenes to DeSica that you will recognize from the neo-realism period of Italian cinema. Worth viewing.
Marcello Mastroianni, a very gifted actor. Plays the old man, and the film is ably directed by Tornatore, but it just does not have the energy of his previous films. The musical score is quite forgettable as well. However, there are two homage scenes to DeSica that you will recognize from the neo-realism period of Italian cinema. Worth viewing.