‘Fine’ and dandy

Most Christmas-themed movies are as sugary sweet and stale as a week-old ginger bread house. Not so with Everybody’s Fine, the sobering Robert De Niro-led drama in theaters Friday. De Niro stars as a lonely grandpa who sets off on an impromptu road trip to share the holidays with his three children in three different cities across the country after each gives him a lame excuse for not celebrating the holidays with him. Like a more family-friendly version of Bill Murray’s Broken Flowers trek, De Niro is visiting people who for various reasons don’t want to see him. Those reasons are slowly and sometimes painfully made apparent as the story unfolds. Directed by Waking Ned Devine helmer Kirk Jones, De Niro’s disparate children are played by Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsdale, and Sam Rockwell. Rated PG-13.