Customer Reviews

Everybody's Fine [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

A film that celebrates life but asks questions about what is best in life, and whether we all make the right decisions. The movie centers on an absolutely wonderful performance by a 70 -odd Marcello Mastroiani, in a role that allows him the full gamut of emotions, from great joy to terrible sadness.

This film is deceptively lighthearted at first. Mastroiani travels from Rome to visit his children; Tornatore gives us some amusing and colorful snapshots of Italian life {or rather, life in general}. The observation with a touch of caricature recalls Fellini. Particularly great is the lunatic who makes a sculpture out of.....aerials, some kind of statement about the evils of technological progress no doubt. Even here, more serious bits creep in, such as a surreal but very symbolic dream scene shown in several bits and an incredibly touching little moment where Mastroiani is in the same hotel room he spent his honeymoon night in and recalls that time.

As the film gets more serious and deeper it becomes a very poignant study of a man who feels lost, out of touch with everything, not just his children, who simply want the best for him but are actually somewhat embarrassed by him, but the world itself. These two elements reach their synthesis in a really haunting scene where Mastroiani, alone and homeless, spends the night in a box and visions of his children, as actual children, come to him. All this is seemingly resolved with just a bit of hope and happiness, than Tornatore delivers a killer of a punch line at the end which really makes us re access our views of Mastroiani's character.

As with {the full version of} Cinema Paradiso, and later on The Star maker and {perhaps to a lesser extent} Malena, Everybody's Fine is sentimental but in a tough way. There is a great deal of emotion, both for the character's and for us, but its tempered with both a sense of realism and a wider sense of life and what is best for us in life. With an absolutely superb score by Ennio Morricone, ranging from the jaunty, Baroque-like overture and 'traveling' theme to the tragic waltz for the 'hero', Everybody's Fine is a great film.

It seems that each of Tornatore's movies (such as "Cinema Pradiso", or "The Legend of 1900") is a journey. Here too, we are offered a journey - an ageing Sicilian father visiting his grown-up children in the North. They all pretend that they are getting along well in their lives, though, the turth is much different and painly obvious.

The experience of the father is not single dimensional - Mastorianni delivers a rich character, who seeks to reconcile his hopes, his desire, yet inability to help. This movie is more than just an inability by a senile man to accept reality, as some reviewers suggest - there is deeper level here, of paternal love, of hope, of the complex uncertainties of life, of the need to understand one's life purpose in old age.

This is a strong and moving experience, a journey to be savored by young and old, by fans of Italian cinema, or Tornatore, Mastorianni and Morricone's talents!

One of the last films that starred foreign film legend Marcello Mastroianni ... an old man visits his grown children in Rome who are so caught up in their own lives to spend time with him. Over time the tragic sentiment that everybody is fine becomes the film's message about the estranglement of the family in modern times. Not only are the kids hiding their lives from their father but so is he ... Mama isn't fine ... she's passed on and he doesn't want to tell them.

Marcelo Mastroianni made a superb tour de force acting in this merciless story about the cold receptivity and bloody indifference of the actual generation around the romantic hopes of a beloved father who still believes in the familiar rejoining.

He will make a long journey through Italy visiting every son , giving them a crude moral lesson about the ethic and brutal lack of affection.

But this striking and cold reception will make him to realize the enormous distance between his illusions and the reality.

Superb and mayuscle film!

This English-subtitled Italian film is the perfect film to entertain the whole family, except for perhaps younger children. In this film, you will feel pain, joy, wonder, and a feeling somewhere in-between as you travel with an elderly and charming Sicilian man from Sicily to the mainland. You will understand a bit more clearly the Sicilian family system and how it plays out- the importance placed upon extraordinarily close family relationships and honour within the family unit. This film will remind you of your Sicilian grandparents and refresh your appreciation for a simpler, more beautiful life.

Stanno Tutti Bene is a must have movie ( not to be confused with the poor Robert DeNiro remake)that you could watch several times before
before catching the the ironic connection of the thick glasses our protagonist must wear. And yet, when it comes to his chiildren he sees nothing. None of the faults, flaws or foibles. Driven by his unwavering love for his children, he sees only that each in his or her own way stands on the brink of success and greatness rather than individual disaster. Stanno Tutti Bene is a touching and poignant film that you won't soon tire of, mainly because as a parent it could easily be you. Marcello Mastroianni is simply superb as Matteo Scuro. If you speak Italian it's off the chart good.

Very good movie! Quite moving, done with good humour. Highly recommended.