Is Anybody There? (2008) User Reviews (45)

Naivety and wisdom all rolled into one

[jerome-delannoy · 8/10 · 25 May 2009]

Not knowing what to expect of this film we were pleasantly surprised, relieved in fact. One critic had rated it as 'morbid' – just what we needed on a bank holiday afternoon – when in fact it was quite uplifting.

There was no waiting around, Cowley took the audience directly to the sitting room of the elderly peoples home. You didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the antics of some of the elderly residents – an ex-dancer, a drunkard, war veteran – who, as interesting as they looked, were never discussed in much detail. They were 'props', clichés or as Edward would put it, 'pains in the backside'.

Indeed, we are made to see the residents as Edward did. Their antics are in fact, annoyances, enough to drive a wedge between him and his parents. Edward, who celebrates his 11th birthday in the film, is focused solely on finding out what happens after death. He played the part beautifully with such naivety and sincerity.

The arrival of Clarence to the home would change Edward more than he would think and vice versa. It was nice to see the relationship grow between the two. For the very first time, Edward would begin to look upon one of the residents as a grandfather figure, someone who would teach him new tricks and to live for the living, not for the dead. Not only did Clarence become a grandfather to Edward but also a friend. There are some great snapshots throughout of the two of them.

Overall, it was a nice film that taught us to live for the moment and that regrets can eat you up inside. It also reveals truths about residential homes: 'you live all your life on your own and then someone thinks it's a good idea to put you with complete strangers'. We must remember that despite having their age in common, elderly people are all unique and should be treated so. Despite being set in the 1980's, the colours and styles all depicting this era wonderfully, these 'lessons in life' are as true today as they were back then.

An understated gem

[dazski · 8/10 · 17 September 2009]

What a pure delight this film was.

Maybe its because I also grew up in the 80's (albeit not in an old folks home) that the twinge of nostalgia attached to this film drew me in more than others. The decor was instantly recognisable and reminiscent of my grandparents house!

I am a stereotypical British Michael Caine fan so I am unashamedly biased but all that considered I genuinely believe this to be one of his shinning moments.

The script was well structured & the direction natural - I believed in those characters, in fact I almost felt like I might have met some of them a long time ago.

Funny, touching, charming and yes most definitely a bit sad but sad in the nicest and most uplifting way possible.

Was this a comedy, was it a drama??? I'm not sure, what I am sure about is that there aren't enough films like this.

If you like run of the mill Hollywood films you wont like this – if you like films with a touch of humanity that make you think a little, go see it - trust me.

One Out Badger

[ferguson-6 · 7/10 · 2 May 2009]

Greetings again from the darkness. I will always pay to see Michael Caine act. I have always found his relaxed, natural approach to be fascinating, entertaining and mostly effective. As the Amazing Clarence, an elderly career magician, he is just fantastic. This may be the first role where he has actually gone out of his way to look older than he actually is.

When he checks himself into a home for the elderly, he befriends the young son of the owner. The boy is played by Bill Milner who was exceptional in "Son of Rambow". His mom is played by Ann-Marie Duffy and she loves her son, but just doesn't have the time and energy to devote to him (or her husband) as she dedicates herself to the tenants.

The best part of the film is watching Mr Caine and young Milner interact. Their time is magical, pun intended. The sad thing is ... this is the only part of the film that works. The rest is a bit lame and certainly not up to the standard of "Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont".

Regardless, the film is worth seeing for the performance of Michael Caine. One of his best in years and really captures the pain of getting old and slowly losing one's self.

Yes--A great actor is there.

[JohnDeSando · 11 May 2009]

Small films such as "Is Anybody There?" usually aren't there, at least as far as box office impact. This one may have a chance at some return because of Sir Michael Caine's role as a retirement home denizen in 1980's England. Caine infuses the ex-magician with a bit of movie magic—cynicism baked with pathos and one of the greatest cinema voices ever.

He teaches an equally eccentric 10 year old boy some tricks, and the little one amuses us and Caine with his project to capture the death throes and after activity of dying residents.

That this bleak landscape of death and despair can be lightened by these two interesting characters is a tribute to the magic of a movie actor and movies themselves, small as both may be next to colossal American blockbusters.

Giving up the ghost

[Chris Knipp · 7/10 · 23 March 2009]

'Is Anybody There?' is a rather depressing little film with Michael Caine (decrepit and, at first, suicidal) and a creepy little boy (Bill Milner from the delightful 'Son of Rambow'). Edward, who's eleven, lives in an old people's home his parents run, and Clarance (Caine) is a retired magician who comes very unwillingly to live there too. He keeps his run-down tour van parked in the yard, like the crazy person who used to camp in Alan Bennett's driveway, and hopes to escape in it soon. Clarance, who misses his late wife, rages against the dying of the light, but he is encountering a lot of humiliations. When he finds Edward has an unhealthy obsession with dying and is tape recording the last gasps of expiring inmates of the home to capture their ghosts, he realizes the boy is in a worse place than he is. As two outcasts, Edward and Clarance bond. A suicidal old man and a pre-teen pursuer of ghosts: at first, it's almost as self-consciously morbid as 'Harold and Maude.'

There was much hope that this would be a special film, given its director's history of prize-winning London and New York productions of Martin McDonagh's 'Pillowman,' a promising (if incomprehensibly Irish) first film, 'Intermission' (with Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy) and his searing and bold 'Boy A.' This new film is edited nicely: it flits from scene to scene without fanfare. The early scenes seem unpromising, but that's the English attitude, isn't it, that life is pinched and messy but you make the best of it? The fact is, this is a pretty marked comedown after 'Pillowman' and 'Boy A.'

This is an actor's showcase, though. Crowley is a good director and he gets able work from all his cast. Michael Caine's on-screen performances (he's Sir Michael now) are all master classes in film acting and he's magnificent as Clarance. Bill Milner is wonderfully dry and snarky and natural. Anne-Marie Duff and David Morrissey are good as Edward's two parents, struggling to deal with the 39-year-old dad's lust for an 18-year-old nurse's aide and to make a go of the home after just a year, in the late Eighties. A half dozen choice character actors are lightly delineated as the main oldsters.

To state the obvious, a film about a retirement home is a good way to talk about aging, and you can round out your story by having your characters die. They're over the hill: departing this life comes naturally to them. No plot twists necessary.

But a film about a retirement home isn't necessarily a bold way to deal with the hard subject of death. There is a tremendous danger of drifting into sentimentality and cuteness. And conventionality. This is the third little English film at least that I've seen recently about a little run-down old people's home where they all live together as a big dysfunctional family. The idea is even more thoroughly developed, without an aging magician or morbid boy, in the Vanessa Redgrave vehicle, 'How About You?', which deals with both the group dynamics and the dying process a bit more memorably. But I remember my mother's retirement high rise and find these quaint English versions false in a whole lot of ways. The writer of 'Is Anybody There?', Peter Harness, himself grew up in an old people's home. But this is a tough subject, after all, and nobody knows what dying's like till they're way beyond telling.

I'm going to give away the ending: Clarance dies. Where the film excels is in how it makes this a moment of triumph for everyone. It is obviously a release for Clarance: he wanted to "top" himself at the outset. But he has passed on some good magic tricks to Edward, and also convinced the kid that when you die, you die. So when Clarance gives up the ghost, to honor his elderly friend Edward gives up his ghost obsession. With that the house cheers up, his mum and dad start having fun together, and he starts to play soccer; he becomes a real boy. There's a lovely moment when one of the old men gets up and kicks a ball around with Edward and another kid--a reminder that some eighty-year-olds can still get frisky. These self-conscious oldster comedies too often tend to forget that for most of its running time, even old age is about living, not dying.

US theatrical release date: April 17, 2009.

Michael Caine at his best, again

[hanrahanpm · 7/10 · 17 May 2009]

I lived in England in the 60's when many of these actors were in their prime. Here they are 50 years later and still working. They're not a bit afraid to act or look their age. What a treat for us and what a treat for young Bill Milner to act with these greats of British film and theatre. Quite a change from "Intermission" for the director John Crowley, but also suitably paced for an older generation. Nice enjoyable film about an old codger and a young boy. Anne Marie Duff had a tiny part (the last scene) in "Notes on a Scandal" and a larger one in a recent Irish film called "Garage." Check it out for understated acting and writing. David Morrissey played one of the leads in the TV series "State of Play" which is now a film with Russell Crowe and Helen Mirren.

Make the hurt disappear

[fablesofthereconstru-1 · 7/10 · 21 May 2009]

There's an old man sleeping in the boy's bed. The old man expires. The boy cheerfully asks his mom if he could have his room back. The boy doesn't look the least bit affected by what just transpired. After the authorities remove the body, he returns to his room and retrieves the tape recorder under the bed. The boy listens for evidence of an afterlife. This is his coping mechanism. Edward(Bill Milner) lives in a do-it-yourself retirement home with his enterprising parents. It's the family business. In a house of impending death, a house overrun with septua- and octogenarians, the boy keeps his sanity intact by not developing any emotional attachments towards his borders. They're test subjects. That's all. They're better dead than alive. The mother has the wrong idea when she encourages Edward to make friends with the oldsters. If he did, it would be like watching your grandparents die, over and over again.

Edward is much too young to be a misanthrope. Naturally, the boy befriends another misanthrope and that's how he learns to appreciate the U.K. geezers who've infiltrated his house. Clarence(Michael Caine) used to be "The Amazing Clarence", a traveling magician, but now the only amazing thing about this second-rate entertainer is that he waited this long to perform his final trick. Lucky(or is that unlucky) for him, Edward foils his suicide attempt, even though the boy isn't scared of death, and wants to know what happens next. Not wanting to jeopardize Edward's status as a sympathetic character, the boy rescues the old man from his smoke-filled vehicle without hesitation. But the boy has a morbid streak, a fascination with the mysteries of the other side, so it would only be natural had the boy mulled outside the tragedy-in-the-making before reluctantly conceding to heroics, which forfeited a golden opportunity to record the post-mortem dynamics of a suicide. "Is Anybody There?" has all the makings of a dark English comedy, but it's death-obsessed protagonist is no nihilist; he wonders aloud, at one point, "It can't be all black." Edward is asking the wrong person, of course, since the magician is a seasoned nihilist, who tells the young boy that nobody is there after you die. "Is Anybody There" agrees with Clarance; the film is godless too, indicated by the withholding of its potential for supernatural renderings. Instead of ghostly voices from another realm, the film stays in its earthly realm, as Edward captures his father's pathetic advances towards the maid, to his utter horror. The genre film that never materializes is suggested in a scene where Clarence reaches into his bag of tricks and brings back the "dead" at a pretend seance. Despite the film's light tone, the message that life is the true and only horror comes in loud and clear. Looking for horror, as Edward does, is kid's play. No longer able to handle the magicians's numerous infidelities, "the disappearing woman"(Clarence's wife was his sidekick) disappeared for real, leaving Clarence a haunted man. At Edward's birthday party, the unfaithful husband, battling the onset of Alzheimer's Disease, indirectly tries to atone for his extra-marital affairs when he turns off the safety on his guillotine, a trick in which he enlists a volunteer from the audience. By severing the tip of the male volunteer's finger, the magician is making amends for his cheating ways through this symbolic gesture of castration. Later in the film, the performer of trick has a trick played on him, as the disease-ravaged mind perceives Edward's mom to be his beloved wife, whom he apologizes to, at long last, for his past indiscretions. Soon after, he dies.

So the boy learned a lesson. In the film's final scene, he seats himself in the stair lift and ascends his way out of frame at a diagonal angle. The boy has learned to appreciate the living. Walking in an old man's shoes is more interesting than a dead man's shoes lying bedside next to his motionless body.

Caine and Milner make it

[ferdinand1932 · 7/10 · 14 November 2015]

Tracing a story between an old man and boy should induce narcolepsy. Although Caine takes the plaudits, and he is a good character actor, this works, and can only really succeed with Milner, who is very good. He is angry and confused but once he settles on the friendship with Caine he shifts and the relationship between the two opens out.

It is a bit predictable but it works with the actors, the interchange between them is critical and in this case it does as Caine and Milner react with each other, making it possible for the audience to read their relationship.

The other actors, some respected names, are not used as well as they could have been. There were other stories to tell there and its missed. The parents are fine, seen through the boy's eyes.

The setting and mood is very well evoked: all dusty and damp with the second best of everything.

Life Lessons, Redux

[druid333-2 · 10/10 · 26 April 2009]

In his fifty,or so years since he had an uncredited role in a now long forgotten British film,Michael Caine has made a name for himself in British cinema. 'Is There Anybody There' will certainly cement his reputation that much further. Granted,he has acted in his share of stinkers, but the good/superb films out weighs them. For this outing, Caine is Clarence,a retired Magician who has just moved into a nursing home,on England's seacoast sometime in the later half of the 1980's. A 10 year old boy,who is obsessed with death & ghosts has a bad introduction with Clarence,who comes off as the typical grouchy old man who just wants to be left alone. Over a period of time,the boy learns some valuable life lessons about age. Do the two of them bond a friendship? What I admired about this film that it doesn't paint the elderly as something to be pitied or feared. The film is rounded out by a cast of mostly unknown British actors (at least by me,anyway,but it didn't diminish the film one bit). A screenplay that equally mixes humour,drama & pathos makes for a sparkling cocktail of a film that will have the viewer exiting the cinema feeling good. Rated PG-13 by the MPAA,this film contains some salty language,adult situations & a horrific (but darkly humorous)image of a magic trick gone horribly wrong.

If I snored, I'm sorry Miracle 5 Theatre patrons.

[cheryllynecox-1 · 6/10 · 22 May 2009]

Yesterday afternoon, in pursuit of an midday escape, I was looking forward to "Is Anybody There". It took less than three or four scenes before I realized that this quiet film might have an unintended soporific effect, and truthfully, I nodded in and out of the film until the final 45 minutes. Perhaps I should have snuck in an extra cola or sugary snacks, but I don't think they could have competed with the rather bittersweet intentions of the film maker.

Sir Michael was effective as a lonely and erascible senior, and his co-star was also convincing as an odd young outsider, but their relationship was not compelling enough to maintain my interest. The camera caught the claustrophobic quality of the shabby pensioner's home with no romance or pretense. I especially liked a nature shot that seemed to suggest a parallel between a badger and Caine's character.

Overall, I would recommend this film for anyone who is usually wide awake in the middle of the day and likes predictable narratives involving a lonely senior and an introspective fourth grader.

Nobody home

[Ali_John_Catterall · 3/10 · 27 April 2009]

What a peculiarly sour little film this is. It says something when, during the screening this writer attended, the projectionist accidentally got his reels mixed up and screened a few moments of Bergmanesque vampire flick Let The Right One In - and it came as a bit of light relief.

British cinema loves northern childhoods - that mix of grit and sentimentality is irresistible - and screenwriter Peter Harness has called on boyhood memories of being raised in his parents-run nursing home in Hornsea, east Yorkshire, in the 1980s.

Growing up in such an environment, 10-year-old Edward (Bill Milner, Son Of Rambow) is closer in proximity to death than most children. Perhaps as a consequence he's morbidly obsessed with the afterlife, rigging up mics in the rooms of those about to snuff it, in an attempt to record the sound of the soul as it leaves the body. "I wonder if this is how the Yorkshire Ripper started?" frets dad (David Morrissey).

Widowed, suicidal magician 'The Amazing' Clarence (Michael Caine), initially prefers to live in his van in the grounds, like Alan Bennett's Old Lady, but is soon moved into the boy's old bedroom. "I used to have Paddington Bear wallpaper" glums Edward. "I used to have a beautiful wife and all my own teeth" retorts Clarence. Before long, the ersatz (grand)father figure is giving Edward conjuring lessons and Edward is teaching the old dog some new tricks, and you can bet there'll be some life-lessons on both sides before checking-out time.

After Paradise Grove and How About You, this is the UK's third melodrama since 2003 to be set in a retirement home. Given the familiar set-up, Is Anybody There might reasonably be expected to play out as some rambunctious, feel good weepie, a cross between Harold And Maude and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, in which an anarchic Clarence shakes up folks young and old.

This isn't that film. Despite Caine half-heartedly quoting Dylan Thomas, this hardly rages against the dying of the light - just whinges irritably about Seasonal Affective Disorder. 'Irascible but lovable' was probably the general idea, but Caine's Clarence, self-pitying and aggressive, is really just repellent - as sinister as some forgotten, moulting old teddy bear with a shredded ear and an eye dangling from its socket, glowering accusatorily from the toy box in the dead of night.

"You accumulate regrets and they stick to you like old bruises" is one of his unwanted observations. "On his grave they'll write, 'He was born, he effed it up, then he died'" is another. His senile dementia, which comes on with indecent speed, only serves to make him more, not less, troubling, as if he might suddenly start slapping Edward about without warning.

Mainly, we're left with the overriding image of a miserable old man shouting angrily at a creepy little boy and the little boy swearing back at him, until one of them collapses. The lesson being: death is inevitable and there's no life after death and you'd better get used to it - so bloody well buck up before I bray thee, lad.

Meanwhile, as a mullet with a mid-life crisis, Morrissey slips back into his 'It's right grim oop North, in't it?' default mode, and Anne-Marie Duff mithers in the background as mum. Trembling like liver-spotted jellies, the supporting cast of legendary British thesps is unforgivably wasted, their tiny cameos left to riff on past glories. Leslie Phillips, therefore, is a dirty old man, while Peter Vaughan comes on like a pensionable version of Grouty from 'Porridge', warning Caine's new inmate, "The first night's the worst, laddie." It's a film to respect or admire from a distance, rather than like or, you know, actually enjoy. There's so much collective talent here, from that vintage cast, to composer Joby Talbot ('The League Of Gentlemen'; The Divine Comedy), along with the producers (Little Miss Sunshine) - and Crowley himself, director of Channel 4's superb BAFTA-winning teleplay 'Boy A.' So it's a pity that, aside from one fantastically surreal image of an occupied body bag descending on a Stannah stair lift, the direction's so staid, and the tone misfires so badly.

Sadly, one suspects that the film's title may also be hostaged to fortune as far as potential audiences are concerned. Is anybody there? No - they're all next door watching X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Michael Caine's perfect performance

[Ramascreen · 10/10 · 19 April 2009]

We know that Michael Caine is one of Cinema's greatest actors but the movie IS ANYBODY THERE? has secured his place in history because this latest performance of his is absolutely magical. As a fading magician, Michael Caine plays his character with such... finesse that can only come from years of experience and perfecting the art of acting. What a superb, masterful, extraordinary, and touching portrayal. If he doesn't get nominated at the next Oscar, then there's something messed up with the system.

IS ANYBODY THERE? is a story of an odd friendship between an old man and a young boy but it deals with dying, old age, and death and not quite the same way that as what Benjamin Button did. The difference with IS ANYBODY THERE is that it's more blunt, instead of going for extravagant visual effects, it relies on simplicity and doesn't hide behind the bushes, even the humor stems from that.

Michael Caine plays this retired magician who misses his wife, misses his great old days of fame and women and riches. Edward is the little boy whose parents run the nursing house that Clarence lives in. Edward feels miserable and hates facing the facts of growing old. Edward, surrounded by old dying people, is fascinated with ghosts and whether or not those people will still be around to haunt the place after they're dead. Clarence, played by child actor Bill Milner who was entertaining in Son of Rambow, is your typical angry kid who could use a friend, a role model, since his parents are too busy.

Their first encounter isn't a smooth one but what follows is interest in learning each other's knowledge. Clarence teaches Edward some constructive skills, in this case, magic.. while Edward teaches him about supernatural world. Clarence doesn't think of it seriously but without secretly he's curious enough to try it on his own just to see if he could contact his late wife.

What will happen after we die? Or is the question should be about what we should be doing with our lives while we're still breathing? Clarence's presence also indirectly impacted the relationship between Edward's parents and how they re-evaluate their marriage as they struggle daily working at the nursing home. The mom is so caught up in her work that she neglects her husband's needs, the husband is so caught up in complaining that he forgets that both his and his wife's responsibility should be focused only on their son, Edward who by the way is so caught up in ghost world that he doesn't connect with his classmates. That's the impact that Edward has on them because he would say sorry to his wife if he could relive his life all over again but time has caught up to him.

IS ANYBODY THERE? may have morbid issues but it's not depressing. It often does comedy at the expense of old people but it doesn't come off too rude that it becomes distasteful. What it's trying to accomplish is to remind audience to always be grateful for what you have, the people around you and the present moment. Nothing hurts more than to live with regrets because you didn't do what you should've done long ago. If you don't get those, then at least watch it for Michael Caine's brilliant phenomenal performance that will leave you in utmost respect for the man --Rama's SCREEN--

One trick thoroughbred

[Ron Plasma · 6/10 · 26 June 2009]

A pleasant sort of film, and I'm never really going to criticise anything with Michael Caine in it am I? Likewise I'll never hear a word against the lovely Anne-Marie Duff, who always gives Gromit a run for his money in the acting-by-eyebrows-alone stakes. How she finds time to write all those poems I'll never know.

But I just can't get a theme together for my review other than some shot at "if you ever wondered where all old actors go – it's a film about an old folks' home in Yorkshire". Yes, so soon after Clint's moribund hero I now have Michael's grey-stubble–and-all retired magician. Do you think I am being drawn to them?

Seriously though, this is undemanding stuff, yet somehow uplifting to see all the where-are-they-nows. But – and if for no other reason, this is why you must see this film at some point – prepare yourself for an excellent centrepiece scene with a stage guillotine.

Ron (Viewed 12May09)

Bad Screenplay Drowns This Melodrama

[Movie-Jay · 5/10 · 14 September 2008]

I was really looking forward to "Is There Anybody There?" when I found a spot for it on my Toronto Film Festival schedule, what with director John Crowley making the wonderful "Intermission" a few years ago, and his latest "Boy A" proving he could do a great job with young actors as well. Those movies were smart and engaging, free of plot requirements, and more interested in character study.

But this movie is a disappointment, with a screenplay that doesn't know when to quit on trying to make the audience cry every two seconds with an over-abundance of "meaningful" looks, all coated in syrupy melodrama that never let's anything go without saying. This movie proves that you can have a good director and a legendary actor at the helm, but that without a good screenplay, the whole ship sinks.

The film follows an early 40 something couple and their young son who run a great big house that serves as a sort of retirement home for an assortment of great English character actors of the last half century, whose senility is made very entertaining because of their name recognition. Michael Caine enters the picture as a man who was once a performer and a magician, but who is losing it in his old age and checks into the place. Now, decide this for yourself if you check this movie out: Do you think that the couple in charge of this house is even qualified to do that kind of work? They seem clueless as to the rigors of the everyday details of taking care of seniors, and indeed, the movie doesn't possess the knowing of that job, or the ability to translate it in a way that seems plausible, which is surprising to me since the story is apparently inspired by real events.

This is a movie that will be liked by the same crowd that liked "Jack" or "Patch Adams" or maybe even "the Cider House Rules", all movies that are top-heavy with sentimentality and over-the-top acting, movies that act like little puppy dogs who just want to be liked at every turn. I saw exactly 50 movies at the Toronto Film Festival this year, and this one was in my bottom 5.

A disappointing miss for John Crowley and Michael Caine.

A young lad fascinated by death befriends a retired magician.

[nicolepacampara · 8 September 2008]

Brilliant. I loved every minute of it.

The movie had the perfect mix of comedy and drama. It's a joy to watch Bill Milner (of Son of Rambow fame) go toe to toe with Michael Caine.

It was interesting to hear from the director how the movie originally had political undertones. As I recall from the Q&A at the TIFF screenings, the director said that the movie was set in the late 80s partly because of Margaret Thatcher - who declared that "There's no such thing as society... only individuals and families."

I'm glad they decided to skip the politics altogether though. It would have taken away from such a simple story that in itself is just beautiful one to watch.

An affecting movie, with minor complaints.

[wrightiswright · 6/10 · 4 September 2019]

Is it much fun for a young boy to grow up in a home for dementia sufferers? You don't really need to see this movie to know the answer to that question, but just in case there's any confusion: it's bloody awful.

Edward's mother and father (who run the joint) are far too busy changing bedpans, chasing after rogue pensioners and arguing with each other to raise their son properly, so of course he ends up going off the rails and causing mischief around the place. Any neglected kid his age would do exactly the same.

Then he meets Clarence (played by Michael Caine) a new arrival there, who he initially butts heads with but later forms a strong bond. The former magician becomes the proper father Edward never had, and in return the boy helps Clarence rediscover his zest for his old magic act and the love of his life that he left behind.

Despite some nice performances and at least two laugh-out-loud moments, the main drawback here is that everything feels rushed. Edward doesn't have any friends at school... then he does a couple of magic tricks, and he's the most popular kid in school. Clarence seems quite aware of everything around him one day, then the next day he can't even remember anyone's name. Pacing, people... PACING.

But with such a short running time, I suppose certain scenes showing gradual plot and character development weren't possible. It's just such a shame, to have a talented cast and not give them enough material to turn this entertaining drama into something truly special.

By the end, as Edward hovered over Clarence's corpse to bid a tearful farewell, it was a bit difficult to empathise with his anguish... because the script hadn't given us enough reason to care. A few more scenes together, and who knows? I guess we never will. 6/10

'Do me a favour.'

[punishmentpark · 7/10 · 24 October 2013]

That (summary) line from Caine is golden, here in more than one way I suppose, when he utters it to the little boy.

A feel-good movie about a lonely boy who wants to know the truth about life after death and lives among the dying with his parents - with their marriage in not a great shape - taking care of them... I'm not sure I should call that feel-good.

The meandering progression of the story does a lot of good to it, making turns like a little creek, that are as much picturesque as they are unexpected. On the other hand, don't expect a shocker, as this remains a feel-good movie in its core.

It could have done with a little less sentimentality and obviousness, but it is certainly a worthwhile, charming film on the whole with some really good acting. O, and that cinematic 'trick' with the tape recorder is a really neat one.

A big 7 out of 10.

Caine and the kid

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 8 September 2016]

It's 80's England. Edward is an angry young boy. His mother has turned the family home into an old age home. He has lost his room to one of the old folks. His father is going through a mid-life crisis. He has questions about death and uses his tape recorder on the old people. One day, Clarence (Michael Caine) arrives almost running him over with his van. He's a magician suffering from the lost of his love. The two bitter souls find friendship and salvation in each other.

It's a little dark comedy. The movie is best with Michael Caine and the little kid together. It would have been great if they take off on an extended road trip away from that grim home. It would have given Caine more screen time and the home is too grim. Caine does big emotional acting although it could have been great to have more broad comedy. Caine and the kid are good together. There are a couple of big powerful acting scenes for Caine.

Lovely performance piece

[sgmi-53579 · 6/10 · 3 January 2023]

In a small, slice of life feature, set in 1980s England, we meet Edward a a lonely and mischievous boy, who lives in his parents home for the elderly. He has a strained relationship with his parents, that only intensifies when Clarence, a retired magician played by Michael Caine, enters the picture. Edward and Clarence become friends, both misunderstood in their ways. The subtle and nuanced performances by our leads drive this gentle motion picture. Bill Milner gives a fantastic breakout performance, and Caine gives viewers yet another solid role. We're only hampered by the brevity of the feature, so we never get a true in depth character study. So it's a nice film, good while it's on, but probably won't linger too much afterward.

Caine at his most able

[SusanHampson · 10/10 · 12 November 2009]

I heard this film was moving so I prepared myself for some spillage. Within ten minutes, I was teary - not hose-pipe teary - but I became aware that the tap of emotion was being slowly turned on by the gentle yet persistent hand of pathos. It was during the second scene, when Michael Caine's eyes spewed forth the wretchedness of despair like an urn pours forth water, that I realised that this performance was Caine at his most able; I fumbled for my hanky and decided to ignore the prickle of anguish just for the privilege of seeing his performance.

If Michael Caine was a piece of jewellery, he would be a 24-carat-gold antique ring encrusted with rubies, diamonds, sapphires and emeralds; each element perfectly contrasting with its neighbour; a unique mixture of the most precious and luminous stones; never losing their appeal yet probably taken a bit for granted; and only really appreciated by few.

In this role, the subtle yet overwhelming brilliance of Caine's portrayal of a man suffering with dementia allows all the dimensions of his talent to shine. This film is the jeweller and his cloth, and Caine is the multi-talented gemstone, in all his mournful glory, at the heart of it.

There's no denying that the story is grim. The characters are sad; there is death, decay and dementia in equal measure. It is a bleak yet compelling landscape. The background to the landscape is equally dreary. It's the 80s in an unremarkable backwater outside Hull; the weather is dull; 90 per cent of the film is set in an old people's home; our protagonist has dementia; and his best friend is obsessed with the afterlife (to the extent of recording the dying wheezes of the clients). Not really a crowd pleaser, eh? But believe it or not, this film has a lot of humour running through it. Okay, so it's blacker than Newgate's knocker but it's there in spades. Caine's best mate, Edward, a 10-year-old oddball is as compelling to watch as His Majesty as his hose-pipe gets turned on more than once, and very effectively indeed. He sensitively portrays a maudlin misfit not that dissimilar to the talent bud, Nicholas Hoult's Marcus in 'About a Boy'.

This film is a really great example of British film-making at its finest - a good script and fine talent - nothing more nothing less. It is also a great reminder that a low budget does not mean you have to compromise on enjoyment. With this film, you get two superb beacons of light radiating out from a good support cast and a true-to-life story about the reality of old age and all the regret that can accompany it. Powerful stuff.

New tricks in a new home

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 8 November 2013]

Is anybody there? is a BBC Films co-production, despite the low budget they managed to attract the talent of Michael Caine who plays Clarence.

Clarence is a cantankerous retired magician, who has entered an old people's home in a seaside town. He does not want to be there and he desperately misses his late wife.

At the same time the family running the old people's home has a 10 year old boy called Edward. He is obsessed with ghosts has he lives in a house where death is common.

After a frosty start, Edward and Clarence bond, he learns some magic tricks. Clarence tries to get Edward away from his obsession about the afterlife and gradually reveals the truth about his relationship with his wife.

The film is set in the 1980s and it captures the harsh realities of running a small old age retirement home very well.

Edward's parents are at their wits end running the home, looking after the residents that they have no time for each other. This is putting a strain on their marriage.

Edward is deprived of a more normal type childhood because of living in a old peoples home and until he meets Clarence he does not even view them as people. He is wonderfully played by the young actor Bill Milner.

Caine of course has the meaty role of Clarence and he can add some pizazz to his performance by adding a few conjuring tricks but towards the end there is the decline in health of his character.

Able support is added by David Morrissey with his 'typical' scouse 1980s fashion and hairstyle and Anne Marie Duff as Edward's parents.

We have the usual best of British character actors playing some of the residents in the house. It is predictable, maybe a little bleak and also lacked substance but the performances are good.

The feel bad movie of the year.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 21 November 2013]

Have you ever seen a film that has wonderful acting but is so utterly depressing that as you watch it, you're tempted to stuff your head into an oven? If not, and you actually want to, try watching "Is Anyone There?"--an incredibly depressing film starring Michael Caine and a young actor, Bill Miner.

Edward (Miner) lives in an old folks home run by his parents. Basically, the place is full of people either waiting to die or who are out of touch with reality--a great place for a kid to grow up in, I know. An elderly magician, Clarence (Michael Caine) moves in and at first, he's hostile towards the boy. But the kid is VERY curious (sometime in ways that you wonder if he needs therapy) and eventually the two become friends....and then Clarence dies. Sure, stuff happens in between, but the film is about dying and loss, so this is the main thrust of the film. In addition, the boy deals with learning that his father wants to be unfaithful and he watches a guy get his finger chopped off. All in all, really depressing stuff and although much of this is the sort of stuff we have to deal with, do you really want to see a film like this? Great acting but utterly depressing and awful.

Heart Warming film, but Not Tidy for a Reason....

[cshep · 8/10 · 29 April 2009]

Little Edward(Bill Milner) has been relocated from his room, and lifestyle when his Mom and Dad open their house as a nursing home, for the greater good. Being displaced has its consequences as Edward develops a morbid curiosity of the end of mortal life. As fate would have it, Clarence(Michael Caine) in a deep and moving performance almost runs over the young lad, who is listening to the last sounds of life while walking down the street. Clarence, a retired magician, is at the end of his means, and has no reason to continue on. Edward, in a nascent love-hate relationship, strikes up a friendship with the aging prestidigitator, and Clarence starts to rekindle a renewed interest in life. The character of the nursing home residents is also fleshed out, and is weaved nicely into the main thread.Gentle and heartfelt scenes fill the screen, from the ocean beach bench to the final resting place of Clarences' beloved Annie, you are taken into their world, and reminded of kindness, and gentle moments. Truly a memorable film, not tidy , because, it is ......

Fine performances by the entire cast ! Very fulfilling......timeless.

The Rest Home from Hell..

[sp2303 · 1/10 · 21 June 2009]

This is a truly awful film. Caine spits and gurns his way through the film as though he is doing facial exercises but in his defence the script is so poor that there is little else he can do but chew it up and spit it out with a look of complete boredom on his face. The lines are thrown around like ad-men's ideas and the odd witty line is so painfully contrived that it practically has a party popper attached to it. The characters are so thin that they rival the elderly resident's skin for transparency and the shovel loaded with emotional reaction is so heavy that it shows every time the film picks it up.

Leslie Phillips is grotesquely patronised by this film and his many esteemed acting colleagues left to wither in front of our eyes into an embarrassing dirge. Sadly, it is the rest home from hell for the audience.

The only thing the film delivers is how dead magic can be in the hands of an inept magician. Save the old actors... don't go!

A humble and restrained piece of cinema.

[Otoboke · 3 November 2009]

The magician is a curious fellow; he spends his days and nights ceaselessly going over his tricks and illusions, making sure all creases and seams are hidden from view so that he may able to dispel reality, if only for a few moments. For those on the other side of the fence, the magician can be seen either as a craftsman dedicated to his art, or as something of a ray of light that hints at something else; something more than the dirt in the ground and the worms at our feet. Yet, for all the glimmers of hope and magic that the illusionist creates in the wake of his act however, there is that ever-looming cloud of certainty that plagues his own reality—standing behind the curtain, the magician is aware of the wires, the trap doors and the contraptions set up to make the mundane seem a little more fantastic; to the man with the rabbit in his hat, the world is a playground where one can briefly create an imaginary world where magic lives, but unlike those that he tricks, the magic never truly lives on once that curtain falls.

Somewhere in the audience is a young, bright-eyed boy—his name is Edward (Bill Milner) and he lives in an old-folk's home with his mother (Anne-Marie Duff) and father (David Morrissey) where death is just as common as a hot meal. Rather than believing in the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause, Edward instead has a genuine infatuation with the afterlife, making sure never to miss an episode of Arthur C. Clarke's ghost hunt programme on terrestrial TV rather than play with LEGO; that is, until one day when a new resident takes up a place beside him and switches the channel over. The new guy is a man riddled with regret and cantankerous spite, his name Clarence (Michael Caine), previous occupation—you guessed it—magician. What so inevitably starts off as a hate-hate relationship between young paranormal enthusiast Edward and old, embittered and left-in-the-rain by ghosts of the past Clarence however soon blossoms into something a little more reflective and intertwined than any of them would have imagined.

The resulting story is something we've all seen or heard before, but perhaps with enough sombre nuances to render it something a little more cinsightful and uplifting than most of these stories. There's certainly no denying that Is Anybody There, on a purely ostensible, story-wise front does nothing new at all, but through development of these two characters (and others) who are brought to life wonderfully by the cast involved, the feature overcomes its rather tepid and pedestrian plot in favour of offering a subtle but pleasant character drama. Of course, there are issues throughout the feature which undermine all the good that is done throughout (this is most prominently realised in the final act which renders one plot-line through a banal, contrived resolution that directly clashes with the central story that ends on a much more refined note), yet much of these lay in the background, easy to overlook in favour of the movie's much more engrossing and charming elements.

So while at its heart a humble and restrained piece of cinema that doesn't necessarily break any new ground, it is this simplicity and obviously intentional subtlety that makes Is Anybody There a treat rather than a bore; director John Crowley acknowledges that Peter Harness' screenplay isn't one immediately pandering for big reactions from audiences, and he plays to this sense of realism and dignity throughout without sacrificing Harness' themes on life and death that trickle throughout. Make no mistake, you certainly couldn't be blamed for missing a small portion of Is Anybody There's reflections on life, but neither should you miss the rest—instead, Crowley and Harness craft a feature that is simple in its design but larger than life in its messages and inner substance; it may not be perfect, no, but it's got enough humanity in there thanks to the cast to make it worth while, even if you think you've seen these life-affirming rites-of-passage movies before.

• A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)