Every Thing will be fine

A brief moment changes the lives of writer Tomas (James Franco) and single mother Kate (Charlotte Gainsbourg) forever. It's just a few seconds when a sled speeds in front of Tomas' car. A few seconds that cost the life of one of the two boys on the sled. Plagued by guilt, Tomas falls into a deep crisis of meaning, which also breaks up his relationship with Sara (Rachel McAdams). As he tries to find his footing in writing, Kate struggles to be a good mother to her son Christopher, traumatized by the accident, despite her grief. While Tomas slowly manages to make sense of his life again and come to terms with the events, Kate and Christopher seem to have trouble doing so. Driven by the need to finally understand what happened that fateful evening, the boy tries to contact Tomas many years after the accident. But is he really ready to face this trauma again?

With Every Thing will be fine, director Wim Wenders has delivered his first drama in 3D. In terms of content, the somewhat plodding trauma and grief recovery actually offers little that is new. With long, calm shots in which the actors' facial expressions, marked by their heavy fate, speak more than the dialogue, Wenders leads his viewers through the plot, which spans several years. With images heavy with symbolism and an oppressive underlying atmosphere, the award-winning filmmaker successfully fights potential boredom time and again. Although in principle not much happens after the tragic accident, as a viewer you are definitely spellbound by the story. With a sensitive hand, Wenders stages a disaster that shakes the audience precisely through the restraint in its realization and makes them sympathize with all involved. Therefore, one also wants to know if and how they cope with what they have experienced and the indescribable loss - always hoping that Wenders will grant his protagonists some form of redemption and thus also a happy future.

This emotional intensity of the initial situation, however, cannot prevent some lengths from arising in the course of the film's two-hour running time. Especially in the middle part, the production tortures itself through some extremely tough moments, against which then even the intensity of the images can't do much. It's true that Wenders tried to give the visual level an additional depth and thus more strength by using 3D. But this intention didn't really succeed. Because since most of the scenes take place in gloomy or very dark surroundings, the image is further obscured by the 3D glasses, depending on the quality of the projection. This makes the movie enjoyment, which is not exactly pleasant due to the heavy subject matter, even more exhausting. In the bright scenes, it becomes clear what Wenders wanted to achieve with the decision to shoot the drama in 3D. But in many cinemas, technology unfortunately puts a spanner in the works of this endeavour.

No question, Every Thing will be fine has some very strong moments, accomplished aspects and understandable ambitions. But the end result is very unwieldy arthouse cinema, at times taxing on the mind and eyes, that unfortunately isn't as groundbreaking as it would like to be. Therefore: only with deductions for patient Wenders lovers worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp