Festival Review: Every Thing Will Be Fine (2015)

A gloriously atmospheric 3D thriller, Wim Wenders’ Every Thing Will Be Fine charts the soul’s repair after a bruising trauma.

Every Thing Will Be Fine
[rating=3]

CAUTION: Here be spoilers

After exploring dance and architecture in 3D with Pina and Cathedrals Of Culture, Wim Wenders is now bringing his three-dimensional touch of class to the moody thriller Every Thing Will Be Fine. Taking place over eleven years, it’s the story of an emotional imbalance in writer Tomas (James Franco), which is sparked off when he accidentally kills a young boy who sleds into his car’s path. After an initial breakdown and attempted overdose, Tomas appears to get his life back on track and after splitting with Sara (Rachel McAdams), he overcomes the trauma, meeting with the boy’s mother Kate (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and embarking on a new relationship with Ann (Marie-Josée Croze). As Tomas’ moral touchstone, Charlotte Gainsbourg gives a powerful performance, while James Franco is understated in his humble while slightly supercilious performance of the author whose emotional crisis and guilt makes a better and more successful writer out of him. And while Wenders’ film is a beautiful cosmos of falling snow, glass reflections and fairground swings, it’s a very deliberate slow-burner which reaches a slightly underwhelming climax as, after hugging it out with Nicholas’ brother Christopher, the sun returns to Tomas’ life after a decade of emotional winter. But while Every Thing Will Be Fine‘s episodic nature leads to a disjointed whole, it’s punctuated with sublime unexpected moments – such as Ann’s accusation of Tomas’ lack of emotion or Sarah’s theatre hallway slap. A rhapsody of recovery in more than one dimension.

Every Thing Will Be Fine is now showing at the 65th Berlin Film Festival