AFI Fest: DAY 5

Day 5: Tuesday 11/3/09

The theater was packed but, again, I scored the best seats in the house to the Robert DeNiro starrer, Everybody's Fine. Luckily, I didn't have to stand in line as the tickets were e-mailed to me. The all-star cast including Mr. DeNiro were introduced to thunderous applause and they walked feet from me unto the small stage. Mr. DeNiro took the podoium and said a few words and received a standing ovation.


Movie review: Everybody's Fine:

DeNiro plays a distant "old school" father who is recently widowed and embarks on a journey to reconnect with his adult kids across the country during the holidays. The movie also stars Kate Beckinsale, Drew Barrymore and Sam Rockwell as his grown children.

I thought this movie was warm, touching and well paced and just right for the Thanksgiving/Christmas season. I also think that DeNiro did a good job of holding himself back and giving his character nice depths of emotion without being stereotypical or over stated.

I admit that tears welled up just a bit for me on this one and I thought of my one dad who passed over 20 years ago. I especially like that the movie has a lot of flashbacks of DeNiro and his kids as children and so it uses child actors who resembles the adult actors remarkably well. These child actors play their roles very well and helps move the story along with temper tantrums and startling revelations about their adult selves.

Cons:
I wanted to see him interact more with his adult kids though as I felt his time with them was too skimpy. I was also concerned about the adult subject matter spoken by the young children.

My view/IMHO:

See it!

Post Prem:

After the premiere, I saw Drew Barrymore walk by then Kate Beckinsale brushed past me as she left the theater with her daughters. Both women looked nice but Drew won best dressed with her fuschia dress and well coiffed hair. There was an after party for this movie but, again, I didn't score a passs for it. As a consolation, I did run into Jesse Metcalfe from Desperate Housewives on my way to the Entertainment Weekly Lounge at the Roosevelt Hotel(see pic). I'm sorry that my Aussie friends missed a photo oppurtunity with Metcalfe but they had flown back to Australia on Monday. Funny, I just met them but I am missing them at AFI. They were real upbeat and we had good discussions about God, Christianity and movie stars in Hollywood.