Everybody’s Fine

If you missed Everybody’s Fine in the madness of the holiday season, now might be a good time to go back and take a look. What in the heck does a seasonal movie have to do with art and artists?

That’s a really good question and unlike those guys in Washington who dodge and weave at the mere hint of a sentence with a tonal upturn at the end, I have an answer. (What’s a tonal upturn? Haven’t you seen Rio Bravo? Walter Brennan explains it all to John Wayne, “It were a question. You could tell because my voice went up at the end.”)

Everybody’s Fine is a film about a widower and his family. The man’s wife was the glue; she stayed in touch with the kids and kept everybody linked and when she dies the family just falls away as families do. The husband sets out to reconnect with his kids and to rebuild the family.

So what and when does it get to the art part? In the process of trying to rebind the emotional ties and relight the fires of love and kinship the man discovers the healing power of art and the magic the right words can have.

Now I won’t quote the line, ‘cuz you should see if for yourself, but you want to be an artist not a painter, trust me. And remember great, powerful, emotional art can be made from everyday things, it doesn’t have a theme or an agenda, it is often made by scared people desperately trying to make the rent and from that fear and passion and yes desperation, the great art flows.

I couldn’t say that this is a great film, it won’t shake the ground from under the epics of the past nor burn a permanent spot in your memory, but it is a tough, thoughtful film and every artist owes themselves the opportunity to see why art has lasted from the caves of France to the galleries of today.

And no in spite of the healing this family receives from a simple painting, I won’t dedicate my efforts to pictures of…gee I almost gave it away, didn’t I, better quit while I’m ahead. Go see or rent and understand why this isn’t a holiday flick, it all about the art.