Absolutely out of nowhere, a late period masterpiece by Wim Wenders!
I am tempted to put _Every Thing Will be Fine_ on my decade's best list,
and I did not even get to see it in the 3-D format the director intended. Reviews of the film have been uniformly hostile, which made me nervous.
This is supposed to be a character study, and characters in Wenders'
films are usually beautifully naturalistic or completely plastic/unblievable. There is nothing in between. I'm happy to report that Wenders elicits terrific work out of his cast. Added to the glorious cinematography
and a intriguing, spare script by Norwegian Bjørn Olaf Johannessen,
Wenders ends up creating a haunting film both about the mystery the heart,
and the mystery of art.

The story unfolds over the course of 10+ years. It is centered around
writer Tomas (James Franco) and the accident that changes his life and
those of the people around him. As the film begins, Tomas struggles
with both his art and in his relationship with Sara (Rachel McAdams).
She wants children and he doesn't. He accidentally hits and kills a
child in the snow, and forms strange bonds with the dead kid's brother (Christopher) and mother (Kate, Charlotte Gainsbourg). Falling into a depression he attempts suicide. Sara nurses him back to life and out
of the ashes of his tragedy come wisdom and success with his new novels.
Ann (Marie-Josee Croze) at the publishing firm admires his books,
pursues him, and they marry. 12 years after the accident, Christopher
contacts him again.

The film works as a mystery and thriller -- it is menacing at times
and the audience truly don't know what to expect. (It is the opposite
of the typical English-Canadian "everyone is in pain" subgenre where
suffering is served up as objet d'art, as its own justification.)
A film like this would not work without full commitment from the cast.
James Franco gradually trades in his trademark smirk and grows from
the callow young writer to a reserved, emotionally shut-off novelist.
We never get to see his writing, but infers that he has sublimated his emotional journey -- and those of others involved in the accident --
into literary glory and success. To Franco's credit, even the
mature Tomas is not very likeable or generous. His best scenes
are those with his father (long time Wenders collaborator Patrick
Bouchau) and the teenage, fatherless Christopher eager for his
approval and affection. He also has an easy rapport with his adopted
daughter Mina. There is little indication that he acknowledges
his strange debt to Kate and Christopher for his worldly success,
or to Sara for her support after his suicide.

He takes from the women in his life and does not give much in return
return. It is unclear why they flock to him, but relationship is often a one-way ticket. Rachel McAdams sports a French-Canadian and a brittle demeanor. The only time she smiles is before she unleash her bent-up
rage at Tomas, many years after he has deserted her. The actress is
to be applauded for taking many challenging roles in auteurist projects (including notably _To the Wonder_). But comparison with the two
veterans in the film, who have the advantage of a decade's worth
of diverse roles over her, would be unkind. Marie-Josee Croze
plays a patient mother to both her daughter and the reclusive writer.
This is a straight-forward character compared to the assassins, drug
addicts, and assorted femme fatales on her resume, but Croze brings
so much intelligence to the role, there is so much knowledge and
soulfulness in her expressive eyes, she is simply a marvel to behold.
Charlotte Gainsbourg here probably gives the absolute best
performance in her life as the complex, contradictory grieving mother,
who literally reaches out to her child's accident killer but also
instinctively understand their bond requires keeping a distance.
There is something so touching and deeply beautiful in Kate's
solitary existence -- living with her boys in the rural Quebec,
working as an illustrator, and finding the strength to go on after
the tragedy. Interestingly, the two actresses have completely
different interpretations of the film's title. Croze, articulate
and intellectual, views it as optimistic, while Gainsbourg, famously instinctive and taciturn, has a pessimistic take. Unusually, the
Montreal native Croze, who specializes in moral ambiguity, ends up
playing the most light-hearted woman, although her confrontation
with Tomas after a carnival accident is heavy drama indeed.

(Oh what Malick could have done with these two in *his* film, _Knight
of Cups_, also about a writer with an aging father! Cate Blanchett
and Natalie Portman are technically sound actresses with better name-recognition, but they don't have the depth that Croze and
Gainsbourg can project with such ease.)

Quebec is a key character in the film too. In fact, in the beginning,
I thought that Wenders took on the project as his "snow film." Every
cinematic visual master eventually makes a film about snow. (Wong
Kar-Wai finally did his, in _The Grandmaster_.) As it turns out,
most of the film is shot in sunny spring and summer days, with Montreal gradually taking over for rural Oka as the main locale. (I should
probably confess that Montreal is my second favorite city after
Manhattan -- how I wish I could live there.) While I did not get
to experience the 3-D cinematography, the lighting and camera work
by Benoit Debie merit a special mention. Debie has obviously studied
Wenders' and Robbie Mueller's work in _Paris, Texas_ and their other road-movies. While the color palette is not as aggressive, the
evocative interior lighting, the through-window framing, the use
of what looks like a bifocal lens and the rear-mirror in a moving
car all pay tribute to Wenders' legacy even as they take Wenders' art
in a new and exciting direction.

(for A.)

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