Every Thing Will be Fine review

His film is imbued with Wenders’s stylistic trademark and is technically brilliant, but unfortunately it will succeed only in inducing a state of tedium. This arthouse offering, with a screenplay by Norwegian Bjorn Olaf Johannessen, is far too laboured and lumbering for comfort – a melodrama that stretches over a 10-year period and occupies a running time of almost two hours.

The renowned director could easily have pruned his production and not lost the gist of what he had to say – if anything. And, despite the novel use of 3D, the film still doesn’t quite rise to the occasion. In one scene Kate (Charlotte Gainsbourg) says: “We can only try to believe that there’s meaning to this” – and we can only agree.

Every Thing Will Be Fine is a protracted study in grief and forgiveness, with James Franco imprisoned in a role that is emotionally stuntedOne day while driving in a blizzard, his character Tomas runs over the young son of illustrator and single mother Kate, but manages to save the boy’s older brother, Christopher (Jack Fulton).

Kate, a melancholic, God-fearing soul, is distraught but ultimately bears her son’s accidental killer no ill will; Tomas, on the other hand, has difficulty forgiving himself. He leaves his girlfriend Sara (Rachel McAdams) and goes into a psychological tailspin that culminates in a suicide attempt.

The film then spans a decade of emotional catharsis and self-confrontation, with the story dropping in on Tomas every few years to check if everything is fine yet. Tomas eventually moves into a relationship with publishing assistant, Anna (Marie-Josee Croze), whom he marries and adopts her daughter. Over time he also becomes a highly successful author.

Meanwhile, Christopher (Robert Naylor), now a malevolent teenager, who had idolised Tomas through reading his many books, requests a meeting. He is carrying baggage and also has to work through his own grief and anger.

Set in a snowy, cold Canada, Every Thing Will Be Fine is visually attractive but it suffers badly from a stiff, humourless script, which only scratches the surface and never allows the audience to truly connect with its characters.