by Ira Lapina
3.5 stars
If someone you loved asked you to kill them, would you do it?
This is a story in which you say ‘yes’, you would kill them. Everything Went Fine is a tender film that shows us the story of a family grippling with the fact that their father wants to die after having a stroke. Andre, the father, asks his daughter, Emmanuelle, to help him end his life. After his stroke, he is half-paralysed and sick, to the point of wanting death. As for this family, they cannot say ‘no’ to his request.
Even with the subject being incredibly heavy, the film thrives in its levity- they take a serious subject and treat it with humour in a way that makes the film lovely to watch in its sincere moments, where families act like families.
In its humour, I would have assumed it would be crass but then again, does anyone really become incredibly dour when a tragedy befalls? Of course not, and this film knows that. They show the family in any given moment, whether sad or happy, because this is not just about euthanasia, it is about the act of love. It feels natural, it feels similar to how people would react in real life when dealt with a serious topic.
It does not delve into the moral standpoints of euthanasia; it just treats it as it is. There is no moral high-ground or low-ground, the point of this film is to simply be a film, which is incredible when the subject matter has such contrasting views.
But maybe the reason I couldn’t rate it higher is because as much as it is a film that can be taken personally, it is not personal to me. It’s like the smell of someone’s home; it has history, but I am not included. Maybe it was because the characters had so many different backstories to show who they were, but they were choppy, and I could not connect whose history was whose. But even then, it added to the charm. They were a family and had their own stories, we were simply there to watch just a piece of that.
All in all, if you ever find this film and become intrigued, watch it. It is a story that will captivate you.
