How entertaining? ★☆☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 4 May 2015
This article is a review of EVERY THING WILL BE FINE.Seen at the Berlin International Film Festival 2015. (For more information, click here.)
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“I’m not ready for all that,” Tomas (James Franco) to Sara (Rachel McAdams)
There is only one element getting an audience member through this dire, syrupy melodrama: The incongruous 3D photography, perfected by director Wim Wenders in his sublime documentary, PINA. Bar his ballet doc, the otherwise overrated filmmaker sinks to a new low. Guilt and redemption are meant to be the themes explored; unfortunately dialogue so lacking in wisdom and artistry is what we are treated to instead. A very minor movie bugbear: The title being expressly stated during the runtime. One challenges you not to be annoyed by the number of conversations that include the word “fine”.
There is only one element getting an audience member through this dire, syrupy melodrama: The incongruous 3D photography, perfected by director Wim Wenders in his sublime documentary, PINA. Bar his ballet doc, the otherwise overrated filmmaker sinks to a new low. Guilt and redemption are meant to be the themes explored; unfortunately dialogue so lacking in wisdom and artistry is what we are treated to instead. A very minor movie bugbear: The title being expressly stated during the runtime. One challenges you not to be annoyed by the number of conversations that include the word “fine”.
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Except when playing opposite Seth Rogen, James Franco has become a tired, unwelcome presence on the silver screen. In 2013, he directed not one but three awful movies. Performances in blockbusters (OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL) to indie (THIRD PERSON) to arthouse (AS I LAY DYING) have left one exasperated at the lack of quality. SPRING BREAKERS seems like so long ago. Here, as lead Tomas Eldan, Franco is meant to be a conflicted narcissist, though comes across as just plain blank. Of all the plot turns, buying him as a celebrated novelist is the tallest order. Michael Douglas in WONDER BOYS he ain’t.
From RESERVATION ROAD to THE MACHINIST, there was a spate of Dostoyevsky-esque movies exploring tragedy and remorse. Susanne Bier has made a career out of mining such culpability. It has taken Lav Diaz’s recent four-hour NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY to shake up the subgenre. EVERY THING WILL BE FINE pales in comparison.
Wintry Canada, Tomas’ concentration is interrupted by a phone call by girlfriend Sara. In that instant a sledding kid, Christopher, slides under his truck. Breath exhaled in relief, the boy survives physically unscathed. On returning him to mother Kate (Charlotte Gainsbourg), she realises in horror her youngest, Nicholas, is still under the car – the only inspired moment in nearly two hours.
Not prosecuted, EVERY THING WILL BE FINE continually spans time as we drop in on Tomas and his monotone existence. A dozen or so years pass in total, the ellipses are not of THE THERE WILL BE BLOOD or PRAIA DO FUTURO ingenuity. Actors of the Marie-Josée Croze and Peter Stormare’s calibre cannot resuscitate. Epitomising the inanity is the scene where Kate burns the book she was reading when her son died; the reason: She was so engrossed it made her neglectful. Let’s hope 2015 does not gift a worse movie moment.
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