Raise your hand if your family is dysfunctional. Come on, not even a teensy little bit? Now, raise your hand if everybody's fine. Thought so.

Somewhat surprisingly, the best thing that the latest offering from Kirk Jones ('Waking Ned Devine') has going for it is its self-explanatory title 'Everybody's Fine'. Fine in this particular instance can be interpreted as: Frustrated, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional.

A remake of the 1991 Italian film 'Stanno tutti bene' by Giuseppe Tornatore, 'Everybody's Fine' has a star-studded cast, showcasing the talents of Robert De Niro, Kate Beckinsale, Drew Barrymore and Sam Rockwell. And yet, despite all this talent, we're not entirely convinced that we're watching the drama of a real family.

As the stern, but ultimately caring, father-figure Frank Goode, De Niro puts in a nuanced performance as a man who realises near the end of his life that he has, for the greater part of his life, placed importance on the wrong things. He captures the sense of dislocation experienced by a father who has, over the years, become a stranger to his children.

A retired widower, Frank's life suddenly revolves entirely around his adult children. When they all fail to appear at a family reunion, Frank sets out to visit each of them himself. Afraid of flying, he takes buses and trains across the country to visit his children in New York, Chicago, Denver and Las Vegas.

It quickly becomes clear that not only has Frank never visited his children before, but also that all communication between the children and their father died with their mother. The web of lies that the children have carefully maintained over the years begins to unravel and Frank is faced with the uncomfortable truth that his children are strangers. Even worse, they are strangers filled with deep-seated resentment.

The use of telephone lines as a metaphor for emotional connection is clever, but it doesn't quite convince us of the bonds between the children. Likewise, Beckinsale, Barrymore and Rockwell all put in commendable performances, but there is still something missing.

It is hard to invest emotionally in a story the fails to convince you of its authenticity. 'Everybody's Fine' has all the right ingredients, but it's never really anything more than fine.