Every Thing Will Be Fine

with an interesting ending.

James Franco as writer Thomas Eldan is pulling on all of his mystery moody self (as he so expertly did in 'Shadows & Lies') but here in this movie - not so much. It's a long haul story of him having to cope with a tragic accident on a very snowy day. He suffers, his wife suffers, his career suffers, other people suffer .... there is a lot of emotional suffering going on here. And it continues for about 12 years (if I correctly recall). Eventually he returns to the surface of life and the suffering and guilt seem to have past. Unfortunately the past comes back, only this time as an adult. This is where the story becomes interesting because there is a level of tension and unknown intentions. Will there be another tragedy? Will there be revenge? The situation becomes edgy! You will have to watch to see what happens.

Director: Wim Wenders (in my opinion) fails to project out to the viewer the misery Thomas Eldan must suffer because Franco really doesn't seem to care. It's just a part - act it out. Which doesn't make this an altogether bad movie, it just makes it long. And Wim Wenders is a famous director!

Wim Wenders became known as one of the leaders of New German Cinema in the 1970s. His work includes "The American Friend", "Until the End of the World" and "Buena Vista Social Club". "Every Thing Will Be Fine" is a very different turn for him. This look at the effect that a tragedy has on a writer (James Franco) takes a while to get going. Wenders's previous movies often looked at political issues, but this is more of a psychological drama. It comes across as flat. It's not terrible, but I expect more from Wenders.

Basically, I recommend Wenders's other movies. "Until the End of the World" is his best. Probably one of the greatest movies ever made.

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.

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.

Everything Will Be Fine is a small intimate movie, but suffers from an average screenplay and you can almost feel Wenders trying to bring intellectual depth to the movie. Although the center ultimately is the grieve and guilt following the death of a child in a car accident and coming to grips with that, it touches many themes which leaves the viewer purposively confused about the center and where to root himself in this movie in the first place: Broken relationships and families, stalking and a writer offering almost everything for success and coping with his remorse.

The use of 3D in the movie is sometimes quite effective. For example, the first two scenes worked well, showing dust and then snow creating a haze in the image suggesting the troubled mind of Tomas. In addition, there are other clever movie techniques at work: turning the camera in directions where you would not expect it to go (turning the camera away from the action or showing a wider angle of the situation); also making effective use of time, hopping forward frequently so the viewer has to adopt his frame of reference. Although the cinematography is not bad, you start missing the collaborations with Robby Müller producing his best movies in the past.

Gainsbourg (illustrator) I think is one of the oddest actresses around as she doesn't (or maybe can't) act. Franco (writer) is consistently clever and restrained in the movie, although you see him struggling in the first scenes. The score of Desplat is very apt for the atmosphere of the movie.

I hope Wenders finally wins his deserved first Oscar, not for this but for the excellent Salt of the Earth documentary.