Every Thing Will Be Fine Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Every Thing Will Be Fine Blu-ray Movie Review

Everything and Nothing

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 5, 2016

The detached, observational style of German director Wim Wenders serves him well in documentaries or when making the fantastical seem like an everyday occurrence, as in Wings of Desire. But in the bewildering Every Thing Will Be Fine ("ETWBF"), Wenders hangs back so completely that the film never coheres. ETWBF asks you to spend two hours contemplating characters who remain inscrutable, who don't do much and whose reactions in the face of life-changing events are so robotic as to suggest a drug-induced stupor. Maybe there was more plot and character development in the script by Norwegian writer Bjørn Olaf Johannessen, but if so, it didn't make it to the screen.

ETWBF centers on a Canadian novelist named Tomas Eldan, who is played by James Franco with the emotional blankness that has become the once-promising actor's default setting. Speeding home on snowy roads from the ice fishing hut that he uses as a writer's retreat, Tomas accidentally runs down a young boy who darts out in front of him. Although Tomas is absolved of legal responsibility, the tragedy transforms him, or at least that's what we're supposed to believe. But as ETWBF meanders episodically through the next twelve years, the tragedy is diminished rather than magnified, as Tomas achieves a new level of success and notoriety. His publisher (an underused Peter Stormare) tells him that he became a better writer after the accident, but we're supposed to wonder whether that's a compliment or an indictment. Events are so vaguely sketched, and Franco's portrayal of Tomas is so bland, that there's never any obvious connection between the author's new-found productivity and the life that was lost. For someone who makes his living with words, Tomas is strikingly inarticulate.

The accident does prompt Tomas to end his faltering relationship with Sara (Rachel McAdams, affecting what is supposed to be a French-Canadian accent). Later, he becomes involved with his publisher's assistant, the divorced Ann (Marie-Josée Croze), and acts as a surrogate father to her cheerful daughter, Mina (Julia Sarah Stone and two child actors). Despite his strained relationship with his father (Patrick Bauchau), Tomas helps care for the old man as his health deteriorates. Years after the accident, Tomas awkwardly reconnects with Ann (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the mother of the boy he ran down. Her other son, Christopher (Robert Naylor and two child actors), grows up troubled and eventually confronts Tomas, but in a peculiarly ambivalent manner that doesn't seem to affect either party deeply. The film doesn't so much end as run out of scenes.

Wenders shoots ETWBF in long takes, with characters frequently pausing in thought, as if he expects the viewer to fill in the story's gaping blanks. That can be an effective strategy when a director provides enough hints to stimulate the viewer's imagination so that one can fill in the empty spaces, but Wenders fails to provide either sufficient information or a consistent tone. You watch ETWBF waiting for the preliminaries to conclude and the story to begin—and when the credits roll after two hours, you're still waiting.

Every Thing Will Be Fine Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Everything Will Be Fine was shot by French cinematographer Benoît Debie, who created the shimmering neon vistas in Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void. Wenders made a deliberate choice to film in 3D, a format with which the director was already familiar from his documentary Pina. The extras include an interview in which Wenders discusses the importance of 3D to his conception of the film, and numerous shots seem to have been designed for the format. However, MPI Media has elected to present the film in 2D only, with a 1080p, AVC-encoded image that is typical of films captured with the Arri Alexa: clear, detailed and free of noise or interference. The characters and story may be maddeningly bland, but Debie's palette is richly expressive, interweaving multiple shades of cool blues and grays with a profusion of warm yellows, reds and browns. Is the cinematography supposed to convey the paradox of a dispassionate writer surrounded by, but detached from, the emotions of others? Whatever the meaning, it always looks beautiful.

MPI has mastered ETWBF at an average bitrate of 28.73 Mbps, with a capable encode. Under normal circumstances, the disc would rate a high video score, but I am docking it a point because of MPI's failure to provide the film in its native 3D format.

Every Thing Will Be Fine Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's 5.1 soundtrack has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, with good fidelity that showcases the orchestral score by Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel), which works overtime to supply the emotional content missing from the rest of the film. Surround activity is limited to environmental ambiance such as wind, rain and the occasional bird flying in the distance. The dialogue is clear and centered.

As usual with MPI releases, an alternate PCM 2.0 track is included.

Every Thing Will Be Fine Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interviews (1080i; 1.78:1; 1:01:44): A "play all" function is included.
• Rachel McAdams
• Wim Wenders
• Charlotte Gainsbourg
• Marie-Josée Croze
• Patrick Bauchau
• Robert Naylor
• Lilah Fitzgerald (young Mina)



• Behind the Scenes (1080i; 1.78:1; 15:50): This is a compilation of footage on set and on location, edited together without commentary or intertitles.



• Trailer (1080p; 2.35:1; 2:01).



• Introductory Trailers: At startup, the disc plays trailers for A Perfect Day, Anesthesia, Dixieland and Born to Be Blue, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Every Thing Will Be Fine Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Had I not been obliged to watch ETWBF in its entirety for this review, I would have switched it off after the first half hour. The prettiness of the images isn't sufficient to compensate for the emptiness of the plot or the inexpressive reserve of the film's characters. Maybe the film plays differently in 3D, but MPI hasn't given us a chance to find out. Skip it.