''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. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Wim Wenders Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker and photographer, who is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among the honors he has received are prizes from the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, Venice International Film ...

, 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. He has starred in numerous films, including Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002 film series), ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007), ''Milk (2008 American film), Milk'' (200 ...

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

Rachel McAdams Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17, 1978) is a Canadian actress. After graduating from York University in 2001 with a BFA in theatre, she worked in Canadian television and film productions, such as the drama film '' Perfect Pie'' (2002), ...

and

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

. 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 most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

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 cinemas 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, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

IFC Films Independent Film Company (formerly IFC Films) is an American film production and distribution company based in New York City, New York. It is an offshoot of IFC (U.S. TV channel), IFC, owned by AMC Networks. It mainly distributes independent fil ...

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, the 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 (known as the Scotiabank Giller Prize from 2005-2023) 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 co ...

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 explanation, interpretatio ...

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 Stormare (; Birth name, né Storm, 27 August 1953) is a Swedish actor. He played Prince Hamlet, Hamlet for Ingmar Bergman, Gaear Grimsrud in the film ''Fargo (1996 film), Fargo'' (1996) and List of Prison Break characters#John ...

as Editor *

as Sara * Julia Sarah Stone as Mina ** Lilah Fitzgerald as Young Mina

Production

Producer Gian-Piero Ringel, 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 Wat ...

has worldwide distribution rights. Belgian Benoît Debie was the director of photography. It was released by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and by Mongrel Media in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. 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 received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Grammy Awards. Desplat was m ...

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 is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

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 (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

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 generally negative reviews, holding a 28% rating on the review aggregator website ''

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

'', based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The site's critical consensus states: "''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 an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

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

References

External links

* * {{Wim Wenders 2015 films 2015 3D 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 English-language drama films