You'll be forgiven if you mistake Robert De Niro's face for Robert Young's next to Kate Beckinsale's, Drew Barrymore's, and Sam Rockwell's on the poster for Kirk (Waking Ned Devine) Jones's remake of Stanno tutti bene. Arriving almost 20 years after Giuseppe Tornatore's original, it's timed as both a feel-good holiday release and an award-worthy showcase for De Niro, who even has a climactic, clip-ready crying scene.
But though Bobby won't make you forget Marcello Mastroianni's Matteo Scuro, the once-great thespian doesn't coast here in his understated performance as widower Frank Goode, whose moniker indicates the level of subtlety found throughout the rest of the film. Frank's grown children are no Bud and Kitten, and even if this father does know best, he has a lot to learn about his secretive kids as he visits them, one by one, Tokyo Story–style. Yasujiro Ozu's film is a masterpiece. This one? Well . . . it's fine.
