Is Anybody There? (12a)
Dir. John Crowley
Reviewed by Matt Adcock
You might not expect a Brit feel good comedy to be shot through with darkness and hard issues such as dealing with dementia but Is Anybody There? does this effectively and delivers a spellbinding cinematic experience that is not to be missed.
Sir Michael Caine is on top form as Clarence - a retired magician (equally effective but a million miles away from his role in The Dark Knight). As my good friend Chris Curtis said when he saw it "Caine is clearly relishing this role, and rightly so".
The film is the tale of Edward, a young boy played by(Bill 'Son of Rambow' Milner), who lives with his Mum (the excellent Anne-Marie Duff) and Dad (Daivd Morrissey having a ball with pikey '80s fashion and a convincingly cringeworthy mid life crisis falling for 18-year-old Tanya - Linzey Cocker) in the care home they run.
Little Eddy is an unhappy chap, billy no-mates at school, unnerved by his parents struggles to make ends meet and morbidly curious with the death (so much so that he hides cassette recorders in the bedrooms of the elderly residents in order to try and catch the sound of their ghosts leaving when the die!).
Edward's life changed when he meets Clarence (Sir Michael Caine) who comes reluctantly to live at the care home, causing a stir with his maverick attitude. What follows is a heartwarming / breaking tale of friendship.
"Here's to the house I bought with the proceeds from Jaws 4"
Arbitrary Darkmatters final rating of: öööööööö (8 - Incredibly watchable and emotionally charged)
Darkmatters quick reference guide:
Action 6
Style 8
Babes 6
Comedy 7
Spiritual Enlightenment 7
Not convinced? check out this review of the film over at FilmStalker - best line:
"The more complex and real characterisation of Clarence was well written and wonderfully acted by Michael Caine. This should be a performance that he should be proud of and can really rank highly with his best performances of his career."
"Linzey Cocker (right) - cute home wrecker in Is Anybody There?"
2 comments:
This is a really poor review. Also, everyone has made - and heard - that joke about Jaws 4 before.
Thanks for the opinion - did you not enjoy the film?
The Jaws 4 line was a direct quote from Caine at the film press conf... he's still using it ...
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