Everybody's Fine (12A)

Family secrets and lies fuel this downbeat drama from Disney. Robert De Niro, initially resembling the groucho old balloon-fancier in Up, plays Frank Goode, a retired widower, whose empty days are devoted to gardening and wondering why his children never get in touch.

When they all cancel a family get-together, he embarks on a road trip to find out what's wrong with them. Robert (an edgy, delinquent Sam Rockwell) isn't the bigshot conductor he claimed to be, Amy (Kate Beckinsale) doesn't have the perfect marriage after all, Rosie (Drew Barrymore) isn't queen of the Las Vegas dance scene as advertised, and something terrible's happened to David in a Mexican police cell. Frank's journey to the truth (a remake of Tornatore's Stanno Tutti Bene) is slow-paced and sentimental, but De Niro, while initially expressionless, gives the film a heart. Barrymore and Beckinsale stay one-dimensionally cute. A weepie that wholly fails to make you weep.