''Every Thing Will Be Fine'' is a 2015 German-Canadian-Swedish

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Wim Wenders Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker, playwright, author, and photographer. He is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among many honors, he has received three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Docum ...

, written by Bjørn Olaf Johannessen and produced in 3D. It is Wenders’ first full-length dramatic feature in seven years. The film stars

James Franco James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Ma ...

Charlotte Gainsbourg Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (; born 21 July 1971) is a British-French actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress Jane Birkin and French musician Serge Gainsbourg. After making her musical debut with her father on the song "Lemon I ...

Rachel McAdams Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17, 1978) is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a theatre degree program at York University in 2001, she worked in Canadian television and film productions, such as the drama film ''Perfect Pie'' (200 ...

and

Marie-Josée Croze Marie-Josée Croze (; born February 23, 1970) is a Canadian actress. She also holds French citizenship, which she obtained in December 2012. Early life Croze was born in Montreal, Quebec, was adopted, and grew up in Longueuil with four other ch ...

. It premiered out of competition on February 10, 2015 at the

65th Berlin International Film Festival The 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 February 2015, with American film director Darren Aronofsky as the President of the Jury. German film director Wim Wenders was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear. The ...

. The film made its North American premiere at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

on September 11, 2015. It was released in the United States in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

and through

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...

on December 4, 2015.

Plot

Tomas Eldan is a novelist, living with Sara in a rural area of Quebec. Their relationship is strained, as she wants marriage and children while he just wants to focus on his writing. Tomas is driving home on a wintery rural road when a toboggan carrying brothers Christopher and Nicholas slides into the path of his vehicle, resulting in Nicholas' death but causing no physical damage to five-year-old Christopher. Tomas breaks up with Sara a short time after the tragic accident, then he briefly spirals into alcohol and drugs before ending up in hospital after a suicide attempt. He tries to get together with Sara again but it doesn't work. He turns his focus back to his writing, gaining success while still troubled by the effect of the tragedy on his life. He maintains fleeting contact with Kate, mother of Nicholas and Christopher, who struggles with her own guilt and loss. Tomas later marries Ann, an employee of his publishing house, adopting her daughter Mina. Eleven years after the accident, a winner of the

Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...

for his latest novel, Tomas receives a letter from now 16-year-old Christopher. Christopher is a self-proclaimed "problem child", whose school

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

has suggested reaching out to Tomas. Their contacts are troubling, but end with Tomas and Christopher eventually helping each other get a calmer handle on their lives.

Cast

as Tomas Eldan *

as Kate *

as Ann * Robert Naylor as Christopher **Jack Fulton as Christopher 5–8 years old **Philippe Vanasse-Paquet as 12-year-old Christopher *

Patrick Bauchau Patrick Nicolas Jean Sixte Ghislain Bauchau (born 6 December 1938) is a Belgian actor best known for his roles in the films ''A View to a Kill'', '' The Rapture'' and ''Panic Room'', as well as the TV shows '' The Pretender'' and '' House''. ...

as Dad *

Peter Stormare Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm (born August 27, 1953), better known as Peter Stormare (), is a Swedish actor who holds both Swedish and American citizenship. He played Gaear Grimsrud in the film '' Fargo'' (1996) and John Abruzzi in the television ser ...

as Editor *

as Sara *

Julia Sarah Stone Julia Sarah Stone (born November 24, 1997) is a Canadian actress. She began studying theater at the age of six, and appeared in a number of school plays over the following years. After booking a small part in an independent short film in 2009, sh ...

as Mina ** Lilah Fitzgerald as Young Mina

Production

Producer

Gian-Piero Ringel Gian-Piero Ringel (born 1976 in Göppingen, Baden-Württemberg) is a German producer. Gian-Piero Ringel studied film production at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb). Together with Wim Wenders he founded Neue Road Movies In ...

, through his company Neue Road Movies, produced the film to which

HanWay Films HanWay Films is an independent British international sales, distribution and marketing company specializing in theatrical feature films. History In 1999, Jeremy Thomas founded international sales company HanWay Films with his colleagues Peter Wats ...

has worldwide distribution rights. Belgian

Benoît Debie Benoît Debie (born 1968) is a Belgium, Belgian cinematographer. He is best known for his work on his frequent collaboration with Gaspar Noé, Gaspar Noe, started in ''Irréversible'' (2002). He also works on feature including ''The Runaways (20 ...

was the director of photography. It was released by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and by

Mongrel Media Mongrel Media is an independent Canadian film distributor established in 1994 by Hussain Amarshi. It is the exclusive Canadian theatrical distributor for Sony Pictures Classics, Neon, and Lionsgate and titles from A24, Amazon Studios, Saban Film ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. One week before the film's premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, French composer

Alexandre Desplat Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat (; born 23 August 1961) is a French film composer and conductor. He has won many awards, including two Academy Awards, for his musical scores to the films ''The Grand Budapest Hotel'' and ''The Shape of Water'', ...

recorded the score with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in Sweden.

Casting

On May 7, 2013,

joined the cast of the film as lead actor, playing Tomas Eldan, a writer who accidentally causes the death of a child. The day before shooting began, it was announced that the cast would include

and

; with Gainsbourg set to play the female lead role.

Filming

Director Wim Wenders began shooting the film in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

on August 13, 2013. After a break, shooting resumed in Winter 2014.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

on February 10, 2015. The film was released in Germany on April 2, 2015 and in France on April 22, 2015. The film had its North American premiere at the

, on September 11, 2015. Prior to the premiere,

acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. The film was released in a

and through

on December 4, 2015.

Reception

The film received mostly negative reviews, holding a 28% rating on review aggregator website ''

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

'', based on 39 reviews, the site's critical consensus stating: "''Every Thing Will Be Fine'' finds director Wim Wenders in not so fine form, delivering a film of moral quandary that never leaps off the screen despite its 3-D stylization." ''

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

'' assigns a rating of 32 out of 100, based on thirteen critics' reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

References

External links

* * {{Wim Wenders 2015 films Films shot in Montreal German 3D films English-language German films English-language French films English-language Norwegian films English-language Swedish films English-language Canadian films 2015 drama films German drama films Films directed by Wim Wenders Films scored by Alexandre Desplat 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films Canadian drama films Swedish drama films 2010s German films 2010s Swedish films