Everything Went Fine Movie Review

Opens on April 21, 2023 (exclusively at Harkins Shea 14)

“Everything Went Fine” is a true life story about a family in France who must live with the decision of the elderly father, who no longer wants to live. It is an emotional journey of a family’s pain of dealing with a difficult situation.

Emmanuèle Bernheim (played by Sophie Marceau) gets a phone call. It is her sister, Pascale (played by Géraldine Pailhas) with devastating news. Their father just had a stroke and is in the hospital. The father is André (played by André Dussollier) who is a famous retired French businessman. He is quite elderly, and in his eighties. But now he is in a difficult medical condition. They meet at the hospital located in Paris.

Emmanuèle has written novels, and her husband is a museum curator. Pascale is a woman who works in obtaining vintage musical instruments. But now the important thing for them is to visit and support their father. They see him there in the ICU, and the stoke has given him many problems. His right side is semi-paralyzed, and he is not able to have any solid foods.

It might be months for his to recuperate and perhaps years for him to gain any movement and motion control. They decide to call in their mother. She is Claude (played by Charlotte Rampling) who was a quite an accomplished sculptress. But now, her age and diseases have crippled her, too.

Once André is out of critical care, he lays out a future plan for himself. He feels he is only a shell of his former self, and there will be no going back. He is divorced from Claude for years now. The daughters have grown and now have families of their own. The only thing that André is ready to do now is ‘End it All’.

Emmanuèle is quite taken back by what her father says. She cannot fathom why that idea would get into his head. This is not something that would normally come up in any family conversion. But André is a stubborn old man, and he tells only Emmanuèle. His final wish is to die with dignity, at his own hand.

Emmanuèle is devastated with this request. She has always had a difficult relationship wht her father. He was demeaning and cruel with his comments to her while growing up. Pascale is equally shocked, but she feels that Emmanuèle is the one who must deal with it. After all, André asked Emmanuèle to take of this final request. She does not think she would be strong enough emotionally, like Emmanuèle would be.

There is one other person who was André’s gay lover. The daughters have a name for him: tête de merde. His real name is Gérard (played by Grégory Gadebois) and he wants to have time with his old friend. André does not want to see him, at least not at first. Gérard was possessive and rough with André. He would always come around asking for money and for favors. Gérard does not want to see André go away forever.

Emmanuèle is in a quandary about this ‘Die with Dignity’ request. The laws in France to do not allow for any type of assisted suicide. This is allowed in Switzerland. There is a clinic there, and she contacts a doctor who works there. The Swiss doctor (played by Hanna Schygulla) explains all the details. If that is André’s goal, they are ready to set up a time for him to get there and get the job done. Nobody else can help him with the final event, and André will need to drink a potion on is own.

There is a dual strategy that Emmanuèle tries to follow. First she will make all the arrangements for her father to bring him to the Swiss clinic. The other goal is try and convince that this is something that he really does not want to do. After all, there will be music recital that Pascale’s son, André’s grandson, will perform soon. He wants to be around for that. Then there is the museum exhibit that her husband, Serge (played by Éric Caravaca), has been working on. It might be enough to change André’s mind about the whole thing.

But no – he is as stubborn as an old goat. Emmanuèle cannot make him think anything but what he wants to do. He wants to go out on his own terms. And he is not going to be detoured from his goal. Emmanuèle and Pascale bring up the fact that family is Jewish, and they have a duty to live life to the fullest. After all, prior generations have tried to be exterminated, so it makes sense to cling to life. André is not swayed by any of these arguments.

When it coming down to the day of the event, there are some last-minutes problems rise up. The ambulance will be ready to drive André to the clinic in Bern, Switzerland. The Swiss doctor calls again, and kindly tells Emmanuèle that things are prepared for André’s exit. Emmanuèle finds out that the Paris police want to talk with her and her sister Pascale. Someone has told the officials that they are planning for André’s trip to the Swiss clinic. But they are cleared, because they tell the cops the truth.

It is too dangerous for any family to with André when he travels to the clinic. The cops will be watching. The ambulance takes André away, and in a few hours he will be at the Swiss clinic. But there is another issue when one of the drivers has a change of heart, and he does not want to assist in what André is planning to do. But in the end, André gets to his ‘Final Destination’.

Emmanuèle later gets a call from the kind-hearted Swiss doctor at the clinic. She explains that André arrived and was dressed in a very nice suit. He was very relaxed and was a peace with himself. He was one to the drink the final potion that did the deed. The Swiss doctor just called to tell Emmanuèle that “Everything Went Fine”. But for the lives of Emmanuèle and Pascale, that final decision by André means that for them –Everything Went to Hell.

“Everything Went Fine” is a very well made and acting drama about the sadness of a family that has a major dilemma. They want to respect the last with of the father, but they do not want to see him end his life. It is a difficult decision and emotionally troubling. The daughter is not on the best of terms with her father. But she does not want to let him down, and does not want to see him go, either.

The main roles have terrific acting from Sophie Marceau (Emmanuèle) and André Dussollier (André). The story is based the true events from the life of novelist Emmanuèle Bernheim. It is a touching story, with a real emotional core. The movie is fitting tribute to the rough times the family had with the final days of their father.