EVERY THING WILL BE FINE
DIRECTOR: Wim Wenders
CAST: Rachel McAdams, James Franco, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Peter Stormare
CLASSIFICATION: 10-12 PG D
RUNNING TIME: 118 minutes
RATING: ***
Wim Wenders’s fascination with 3D cinematography began with his documentary Pina about dancer Pina Bausch, and continued in the multiple-director omnibus Cathedrals of Culture last year. But the awkwardly titled Every Thing Will Be Fine seems more like a showcase for expressive camerawork pushing the limits of cinematography than anything else.
Actors the calibre of James Franco ( pictured) and Charlotte Gainsbourg get the short end of the stick in this angst-ridden drama about a writer who is tormented by the accidental death of a child. There is dramatic tension, but all things considered, this ranks as a puzzling failure.
The subject is grim enough to give many art house regulars pause, and Wenders’s treatment does nothing to lighten the depressing screenplay. On the contrary, the atmosphere hangs heavy as the characters try to cope with the central tragedy. And it doesn’t help that writer Tomas Eldan (Franco) reacts to his overwhelming sense of guilt by closing up like a clam. Though everyone tells him he is blameless, he doesn’t feel that way, and the story lumbers on until he faces his demons and reaches glib closure. Cliches painting him as an alcohol and drug-addled writer prone to tear up the pages he has written in a fit of creative despair don’t take him far either.
Tomas is so self-absorbed that it’s hard to tell if he is meant to be taken as a negative character or just a deeply flawed one. On the surface, his reactions are the standard male responses to female demands that he settle down (“I’m not ready for all that,” “You want kids and I don’t”, “I just want to write”) or show some outward emotion, for example, after watching a woman nearly die at the fairgrounds. But put together, they add up to a tough guy to warm up to.
The first accident occurs at the start of the film, while Tomas is driving home to have dinner with his girlfriend, Sara (McAdams), one snowy evening. On edge from a ringing cellphone, he doesn’t see two boys barrelling down the hill in front of him on a sled. The audience will also be feeling disoriented by falling 3D snowflakes and the amazing effect of looking through the windscreen at deep layers of imagery. Braking on the icy road, Tomas is relieved to find Christopher a few feet from his car, unhurt. He walks him to his house, talking and joking, but when mother Kate (Gainsbourg) sees them, she frantically asks where his brother Nicholas is.
The scars are deep, and the rest of the film traces his search for forgiveness. This is done in scenes that are deliberately unconnected, fading to black and jumping over years. The accident drives a wedge between Tomas and Sara, though they seem to have very little chemistry anyway. He later forms a family with literary editor Ann (Marie-Josee Croze) and her little girl, Mina. Though Croze plays Ann as more mature and controlled than McAdams’ spontaneous Sara, the female psychology seems off base in both cases.
It’s hard to believe in these or Tomas’s other cliche-ridden relationships. His unwillingness or inability to have children may have its roots in his sneering father. Dad is more than a bitter old man; he’s downright nasty. His wife, son and prestigious job seem meaningless now that he’s ageing, and Tomas’s patience with him is remarkable.
His one convincing relationship is with Kate, Christopher’s eccentric mother. They meet a couple of times, sharing their grief as they look for reassurance that they are not guilty. The emotional realism of these delicate scenes makes them the most riveting in the film, sanctified by Gainsbourg’s quiet, heartfelt performance that defies all banality.
The bookish English used is distancing and flattens out the characters, making them seem even more peripheral to the fancy camerawork, and raising the question of whether 3D is appropriate for such a closed-door drama. – The Hollywood Reporter
If you liked True Story or Far from the Madding Crowd, you will like this.