10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
another Mastroianni hit, April 7, 2000
This review is from: Everybody's Fine [VHS] (VHS Tape)
A touching story of an elderly man who goes on an excursion to visit his five grown children. It is a touching story of a man slowly losing touch with reality and slipping back into the past. The more he finds that his children are not quite telling him the truth about their lives, the more his memories darken and become more sinister. It is a touching yet disturbing tale that keeps you guessing about not only the true lives of the children, but whether or not the father can handle that truth.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stanno Tutti Bene, October 18, 2005
This review is from: Everybody's Fine [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Matteo is a sexagenarian widow who lives by himself in Sicily. He rarely hears from his five children who moved away to find jobs and settle in the mainland. They now live in various parts of Italy: Napoli, Torino, Roma...
All of them always told him not to bother coming and not to worry: that they were perfectly fine, they had "comfortable" lives and "honorable" jobs. Or so they say!! But are they really telling him the truth??
Tired of being lonely and left out, and maybe also foreseeing the end of his life, he decides to pack his bags and pay each of them a surpise visit. He must go to the mainland to see things for himself.
During his trip, he will eventually uncover their lies, and through them, see the fading of values and traditions such as family unity, commitment and loyalty: not only in his family, but in the entire modern Italian society.
A beautiful story. One of Marcello's most powerful and touching performance as a Sicilian sexagenarian, loving, grotesque and desillusioned. Not a sad tale. Only Italians can show their misery and sadness with a big smile.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Marcello at his best!, July 17, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Everybody's Fine [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This is a heart-wrenching but beautiful film about a lonely but hopeful Sicilian pensioner who happily chats to his long-deceased wife and thinks his five adult children, who have moved to live separate lives in the mainland, are all huge successes. When his children disappoint him by not agreeing to a family reunion beach-side holiday in Sicily, he packs his bag and boards a train to go visit each of them, for the very first time. As he travels to Naples, Rome, and Milan, trying to surprise each child with his visit, he is the one surprised to find that as the film's ironic title suggest "Everybody is not Fine". Despite the bittersweet realities Matteo Scuro is faced with, the film has much humour and the character of Matteo, charmingly played by the legendary Marcello Mastroianni, is totally enchanting. Entertaining film that will make you think about life, about our expectations of those we love, and about what's really important.
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