‘Everybody’s Fine’: Robert De Niro blames the lousy promoting for his most overlooked movie
As one of the most celebrated actors of all time, Robert De Niro hasn’t made many movies that fly undeservedly under the radar. It would be hard to argue that Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, or The Godfather Part II are overlooked or underrated. If anything, De Niro gets the benefit of the doubt a little more often than he deserves.
Having secured his start in the 1960s, De Niro quickly rose through the ranks of Hollywood stardom to become one of the most respected actors of the century, only to continue to hold that mantle after the millennium. He helped pioneer method acting for a new generation and has inspired countless actors ever since. However, he has also starred in some truly awful movies that should never have made it past the script stage, let alone into theatrical release.
Most films that have De Niro’s name attached are afforded a certain level of fanfare, regardless of whether they warrant it. But according to the actor himself, there is one glaring exception. In an interview with Cigar Aficionado in 2015, the Oscar winner said that there was a movie that “meant a lot” to him that never got the attention it deserved.
“Everybody’s Fine, directed by Kirk Jones,” he said. “It’s about a father who is estranged from his children who takes a road trip to try to reconnect with them.”
According to the star, this film held a particularly special place in his heart even though he wouldn’t necessarily identify it as his favourite of all the films he’s made. Released in 2009, it’s a dark family drama about an ageing father who is forced to come to terms with his harshness and distance as a parent when he travels to see each of his four children around the country.
De Niro didn’t elaborate on why the film was so special to him, but he does have seven of his own children, and its themes of parental regret and a longing for reconnection with adult offspring are pretty universal, especially for parents caught up in their professional lives for most of their children’s youth.
For him, the reason the movie didn’t get a warmer reception was down to marketing. “They did a lousy job promoting and distributing it,” he explained. “Miramax was being sold by Disney around this time. I only wish it was Harvey Weinstein who represented it. It died in America.”
To clarify, he made these statements before the extent of Weinstein’s predation on women was public knowledge and the Miramax head was still known primarily as a relentless promoter of the films he produced rather than a serial rapist. Even if Everybody’s Fine had been in the hands of a dogged Hollywood mogul, however, it might not have done as well as De Niro had hoped.
For one thing, it was marketed as a whimsical family comedy rather than the deeply existential, downright depressing film that it is. For another, critics who did see it were largely unimpressed except for De Niro’s moving performance. Although he’s been accused of phoning in a lot of his performances in recent decades, this film clearly meant something special to him.
