Every Thing Will Be Fine

An artistic film about everyday life focusing on the popular writer Tomas Eldan and other artists and their close-ones whose paths cross upon each other when tragedy hits, unfolding a series of events that span over a decade. A small and realistic film by director Wim Wenders using brilliant 3D techniques centering around time and light that makes huge waves with the storytelling, the breathtaking cinematography and scenery with impressive performances, especially from James Franco and rising actor Robert Naylor. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Rachel McAdams, Peter Stormare, Patrick Bauchau, Marie-Josée Croze and the young Julia Sarah Stone, Lilah Fitzgerald and Jack Fulton also feature. There were a few question marks in the script that stood out for me but the overall film-production and the skills they used satisfied me totally.

Writer Tomas Eldan (James Franco) almost hits Christopher who sled onto the snow-covered road. Tomas carries him back up to the house where his mother Kate (Charlotte Gainsbourg) comes out looking for her other son. Tomas realizes that he had unknowingly ran him over. He is haunted by the death despite not being responsible. His relationship with Sara (Rachel McAdams) struggles as they clash over her wish for kids. Eventually, he finds love again with Ann (Marie-Josée Croze) and her daughter Mina. He tries to help Kate while Christopher is obsessed with Tomas and that fateful day.

The movie opens with a great incident but then it goes off into a series of rambling flat scenes. Everybody speaks in that flat Quebecois accented English. The story keeps skipping ahead a few years and jumping over the emotional flow. It's flat tonally. It's disjointed. There are one or two great scenes with McAdams but it's all very fleeting. The story would be more powerful staying with Sara and Kate.

The movie takes us through part of the life of a writer who goes through a traumatic experience. That's the only exciting moment of the movie. The rest is just seeing time pass and nothing really happens. Part of the story driving is even the cliché "we can not be happy because we can't have children".

The camera management was alright, and so is the acting(mostly), but the script is all over the place at the beginning and when it finally seems like the plot is going somewhere, it's really not. Calling it "art film" is not an excuse for such a poor movie. I had high hopes because James Franco was in it, but even he did could not redeem this.

Exceptionally well acted by James Franco. Beautifully layered storyline. Its storytelling is right on par with the story itself. Really modest in its presentation, but grand in its effect. Robert Naylor also deserves credit for some fine acting. I hope this piece of art won't be underrated, because the story really is just a plain portrait of life, without any fuss. It struck me, with all its characters in it. Please take note of James Franco reading his letter from teenager Christopher so beautifully human. And the score is beautiful! Its cinematography is well crafted, there to deliver. I can't see why people would think this is a pretentious presentation of camera styles.

It happens rarely that I disagree with the majority of the film critic reviews to such an extent as with this film. So, without repeating the plot here for the hundredth time, I'd like to jump straight into it: Contrary to the general feeling of slowness and flatness of the film, I feel that the story and the script called just for this sort of painfully slow, cinematic and gently nuanced filmmaking and Wenders is the master of this type of cinema. Yes, there are clichéd conversation exchanges including the somewhat melodramatic ending, however, the more alert viewer will have already been warned in advance that such will be the case in a scene right before the final sequence, so one is not surprised and can enjoy Tomas' agony to the very last second. Also, I very much enjoyed the cinematography and music, which is the best company to the lonely and painful journey Tomas is going through - a guilt and inner scar that is there to stay for life and one can only have little hope to get rid of such a stone ever. There was also a comment of one reviewer about the flatness and "lack of arc" of the female characters in the story. I disagree that this is the film's flaw - quite the contrary again - it is only very well crafted as such - as the women (actually, as well as Tomas' editor and father) only appear sort of "at the periphery" of his life, doomed never to fully understand his inner notions - a combination of a struggle as a lonely artist only topped by the tremendous guilt and pain he has to live with. The only meaningful connection he has - amazingly perverted, yet understandable at the same time - is with Kate, portrayed - yet again - so mesmerizingly by Gainsbourg, that can hardly breathe during their scenes together. The only flaw that I see in this film is the casting of Franco as Tomas. I don't really understand this choice because even though he is a great actor, this role, I feel could have been better fit to a less "boyish" actor, who could grasp all the weariness of Tomas' everyday grey and burdensome reality a bit better.. However, Franco does his best here and it shows he does get the thin line he has to walk on never to flip the character into too much melodramatic position. So, overall, quite an achievement again for Wenders and the whole crew for keeping this film balancing on the thin edge of the knife the film's tone depends on.