Everybody's Fine

Stars: Marcello Mastroianni (La Dolce Vita, 81/2, Dark Eyes), Salvatore Cascio (Cinema Paradiso). On the heels of his magnificent Oscar-winning Cinema Paradiso, director Giuseppe Tornatore returns with a bittersweet comedy-drama about an aging Sicilian patriarch named Matteo (Mastroianni) who travels to the Italian mainland to visit his thriving adult children. But, as Matteo travels from city to city, the audience begins to suspect that the kids have been jerking Dad's chain a bit about their accomplishments: the fashion model daughter (lingerie, actually), the politician son (hack speechwriter, in reality), the son who's a world-famous orchestra member (sessions sit-in guy), etc. All of the adult children are hiding one big horrific secret which Matteo doesn't discover until the film's close (lending a sense of mystery to the whole movie). Mastroianni is simply beautiful as Matteo, the slightly befuddled but tremendously proud father. Writer/director Tornatore gives him eyeglasses with lenses as thick as coke-bottle bottoms, making his eyes roughly the size of silver dollars (a brilliant touch--Mastroianni looks as if he's struck with wonder most of the time). Everybody's Fine offers a rich mix of powerful story and knee-slapping humor (a sequence with a squalling baby who is only pacified by watching soap operas is a comic gem). Underneath the laughter, however, there's some food for thought here. We see the potential for damage when parents harbor great expectations for their children--expectations that aren't always met. Superb acting, a master's sense of timing, and exquisite cinematography make Everybody's Fine an excellent choice for any collection. [Note: Film premiered on Cinemax in June.] Audience: Everybody's fine.