Is Anybody There? (2008) Online

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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--

'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.

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)

Normally, an old folks home in the boondocks of England run by a quarreling couple on a shoe-string budget with the young son slowly going bonkers from their bickering, from being forced to sleep in a closet, and from being surrounded by eccentric elderly people in various stages of dementia would not shape up to be a barrel of laughs, or even a story likely to capture one's attention. Yet this premise is not that divergent from the first chapter of the PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, known otherwise as Harry Potter, Book One. Before you can mutter "Albus Dumbledore," a mysterious aging magician named Clarence A. Parkinson (Michael Caine) enters the world of young, put-upon Edward (Bill Milner), who's just turning old enough to enter Hogwart's, age 11. The real magic of this movie is THAT THERE IS NONE, and yet it manages to poignantly evoke the triumph of plucky youth prevailing against all odds with a wave of emotion not dissimilar to that evoked when Dumbledore awards Neville Longbottom that final point to clinch the House Cup for Gryffindor near the conclusion of 2001's HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE. As an added bonus, this current film is filled with lots of humor, plus a grisly moment that would make Buckbeak's head spin! While waiting for the sixth Harry Potter movie, why not check out IS ANYBODY THERE?

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.

Most great actors when they feel they have amassed a distinguished body of work tend to rest on their laurels and just churn out pretty bog standard stuff in their later years. Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro seem to be doing it of late with "Hide & Seek" and "88 Minutes" not to mention their joint effort "Righteous Kill" while Laurence Olivier long ago pioneered the process with such beauties as "The Jazz Singer" and "The Betsy". Michael Caine however seems to have gone the opposite route. While his long career is dotted with some minor classics it is also flooded with some major turds. In fact between "Sleuth" (1972) and – "Sleuth" (2007) there has been "The Man Who Would Be King" –"Hannah And Her Sisters" - "Mona Lisa" but there has also been "The Hand" – "The Swarm" – "Jaws: The Revenge" - "Blame It On Rio" (a lot of)etc. Recently though Michael Caine clearly feels he has his money made and can afford to be to be a lot more selective in his choice of roles. He has had a consistent run of well received performances in well-received films and has become an integral part of the revitalised Batman franchise. His latest choice is possibly one of his best performances. In "Is Anybody there" he plays "The Amazing Clarence" a former magician who is forced by increasing dementia to move into a nursing home, very much against his will. The nursing home is also home to 10 year old Edward whose parents own and run the place. He is just as unhappy to be there as Clarence is and inevitably a prickly friendship develops between the (very) cantankerous old man and the (very) cheeky young boy. Edward is fascinated with death and ghosts, hardly surprising given his environment and Clarence teaches him magic tricks to try and pull him out of this morbidity and encourages him to make friends with kids his own age. Indeed Edward does start to impress his class-mates with his magic tricks (particularly the ones involving fire) and he decides to have a birthday party at the home – with Clarence as the entertainment. But Clarence's Alzheimers is getting worse and he is becoming more and more forgetful, when it matters most. This is a beautifully acted film by both Caine and Bill Milner as Edward. Anne-Marie Duff and David Morrissey perform solidly as the parents while the residents of the home are played by a number of established faces including Leslie Phillips as a man with a passion for telling very dirty jokes – particularly to members of the clergy. The film is full of dark humour but is never patronising and frequently very moving. While Clarence's decline is a bit rapid - more of a plummet into full senility than a descent - it is still very well handled and ultimately leads to a very touching finale.

There is a hazy feeling permeating through "Is Anybody There?" as the perception of life for the 10-year-old protagonist is affected by the impermanence of the elderly residents living at home. Edward, who has been asked by his parents to give up his bedroom to accommodate residents in the house they have converted into a rest home, struggles with the concept of death as the elderly around him decay and die. He tries to record evidence of the existence of the soul while his obsession makes him an outsider at school and in his own home. The scenes are clearly his memories: this is the mid-80s with "Back to the Future" at the movie theater and "Come on Eileen" on the radio, his parents' quarrels, the boring classroom, his anger at the situation, and old folks dropping dead.

Clarence, played masterfully by Michael Caine, is a former vaudeville magician referred by social services and in the early stages of dementia or Alzheimer's, who becomes a new resident in the home against his wishes. Eventually, Clarence's bitter cynicism is lifted by Edward's ebullience and they bond but despite magic tricks and tenderness their moments will be far from perfect and they will not necessarily alter their belief system and be wiser.

This movie does not follow the contrived formula of the old person/young person plot written and performed countless times, often sweetened with sentimentality and conveying the idea that both lives will change for the better. The older one, often bitter or jaded, learns to love again and spends his/her last days as a better human being thanks to the younger one's candor and energy, while, the inexperienced younger one learns the bittersweet lessons of living and dying from the older one. Sometimes, the formula is inverted and the elderly is optimistic and energetic teaching a child how to open up to life while the young one brings grounding common sense. "Is anybody There?" it is not this type of movie, there are no big lessons and imparting of wisdom. It is just a short tale of two lost souls meeting and departing and the process of aging and dying at a rest home. The scenes do not try to be sentimental or evoke notion of what is living and dying but search for a realistic tone showing the elderly and the rest home daily living under a natural light.

Michael Caine's poignant vulnerable performance as a man living on a meager pension in his last days while still trying to maintain his dignity is award-worthy. Prodigious young actor Bill Milner (who was fantastic in "Son of Rambow") is a perfect match creating a delightful portrait of a lonely, confused and angry boy who is too smart for his own good.

If you are the type of viewer you enjoy conventional dramas or comedies that involve children and seniors, this movie may not be for your. If you wish to watch a British slice of life where a boy and an old man come together for a brief shining moment as one is growing and the other dying, this movie is perfection.

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.

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.

It'll be interesting to see how the Multiplexes will market this, if indeed they deign to screen it at all. Who, for example, constitutes a target audience for a film set in a Retirement Home in which the young boy of the house is preoccupied with death and what comes after, and residents fall off their perches throughout. At times it seems to aspire to a Chekhovian feel but it is light years away from Chekhov both in mood and character drawing. That said Caine turns in one of his best performances in a coon's age and the support is mostly up to snuff which is arguably par for the course in something of a snuff movie. The central relationship is both handled and played well if you don't let the subject matter dissuade you from going you may well appreciate it.

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.

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.

A 90 minute movie with Michael Caine and Rosemary Harris, not to mention many of the UK's heavy hitters, sounded like a little bit of heaven. Not so. The script was by-the-book, Harris was barely on screen and Caine could do this character in his sleep. I knew within the first 10 minutes that this story had been done before, and with better results. The characters had no history, they died without any reason other than their screen time was up, and Caine exhibited the fastest case of dementia known to humankind - unless, of course, the editing got a bit muddled and weeks or months passed instead of hours. There was also a problem as far as understanding the actors - unless it was the screening print I saw. Just a deeply disappointing evening.

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.

This film proves that an old and well loved actor like the star of The Dark Knight and Inception can still cut it as the leading actor and not just supporting, and of course the following year he became Harry Brown. Basically, set in the 1980's, in an old people's home near the seaside unusual ten year old boy Edward (Son of Rambow's Bill Milner) is growing up surrounded by old people, and of course dying and death, so he has become fascinated if not obsessive with the subject, especially finding out evidence of the afterlife. While his Mum (Anne-Marie Duff) struggles to keep the business afloat and his Dad (David Morrissey) is having some form of mid-life crisis, Edward is making recordings of the elderly residents to try and discover what happens when they die, but what he really needs is a friend, being the lonely boy he is. They start by getting on each others' nerves, but slowly he forms an unlikely friendship with elderly retired magician Clarence (Sir Michael Caine), the latest arrival to the home, he has a liberating streak of anarchy. As they spend time together the old man wants to help Edward find an answer to his question and the boy wants to help Clarence come to terms with the past, he is also suffering the early stages of dementia. Clarence gets to perform one last magic show, which has comedic consequences for a man's finger, but like all the old people he cannot escape death and dies tragically, Edward is devastated, so much so that he knows it is best to live in the moment. Also starring Coronation Street's Thelma Barlow as Ena, Spider-Man's Rosemary Harris as Elsie, Leslie Phillips as Reg, Ralph Riach as Clive, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone's Elizabeth Spriggs as Prudence, The Queen's Sylvia Syms as Lilian, Peter Vaughan as Bob, Ralph Ineson as Mr. Kelly, Larry David as Fireman and Miles Jupp as Vicar. Caine gives a marvellous authentic and touching performance as the troubled old man who through friendship finds enjoyment of living, and young Milner is likable as the lonely eccentric boy with an unusual interest and finding equal comfort, the supporting cast members are all fine as well, the story is simple enough, an unlikely friendship based on the subject of mortality, it may feel a bit awkward on occasion and lapse into sentimentality, but the occasionally sometimes dark humour and poignant moments rescue it, overall it is an enjoyable enough drama. Worth watching!

Is Anybody There? (2008)

Yes, this is a sentimental even sappy movie, with clichés of old man befriending young boy and both of them growing and changing as a result. But there is so much done right here, so much magic and sincerity throughout, and such good acting by the two leads, it's hard to fault it. It's like having a wonderful carmel apple and saying it wasn't good, you've had one before.

Michael Caine is the headliner, and he's 75 at the time of filming, both looking and acting his age. That's not a marvel in itself, exactly, but it's admirable, though for Michael Caine, who acts more than he breathes, it was to be expected. At the other end of this spectrum is the young boy, played by Bill Milner, who is 13 at the time, very smart, subtle, and rather complex for a kid.

The background to it all is an old folks home of an old-fashioned sort, charming and simple, a big old house in the country where a handful of aging but still ambulatory sorts keep going one way or another. I don't suppose it's a common thing these days (though it's set in Britain, and I don't have a clue about that, really), but it really seems like a perfect way to spend some waning years if you don't have family, or a vacation home in Arizona, to turn to. They don't have much, but they have each other, and director John Crowley (who did "A Boy") keeps the sentimentality in check without avoiding the true joy of some of the encounters.

Caine's character, Clarence, was once a magician, and Milner's character, Edward, is interested in the paranormal. The two naturally overlap, though Clarence makes clear with growing emotional pain that there is no other world than this transient one and that Edward is wasting his time. Edward sees magic as something other worldly and gradually leans the reality of magic, that it's about illusion. Then, as time goes on between the two (and it isn't always sweet, but it's always tender), a new kind of illusion grows in the mind of the old man, and the other world takes on a third meaning, and a useful one to take care of some of his angst.

I suppose this is a film with too much feel good warmth and forced complexity (forced in the family members who run the old folks home, mostly) to work for some viewers. But if you can be uncynical in the least, and enjoy something simple and heartfelt, tinged with the depths of dying and old age, watch this one. It swept me away.

John Crowley has been creating sensitive films that deal with difficult subjects (Intermission, Boy A) and somehow pulls them off brilliantly. IS ANYBODY THERE? on the surface is a simple story about a friendship that develops between a somewhat despondent elderly man and a young boy who wants to know what happens after life. In part due to the writing of Peter Harness and in part due to the stellar performances by Michael Caine and Bill Milner, this little Indie film slipped through the cracks of public notice only to be discovered once it has been released on DVD. It is worth the wait.

Edward (Bill Milner) is a ten-year-old boy living with his parents, Mum (Anne-Marie Duff) and Dad (David Morrissey) in 1980s England. In rough financial times the family has converted their small home into a retirement center where elderly folks progress towards their ends, grumble and gather for games and are entertained by whomever happens by. Edward, put out because he has given up his room for the old codgers, fancies ghosts and paranormal activities that he attempts to register on a tape recorder whenever one of the tenants dies. His life is one of frustration at having to live with the old folks, until one day by chance one Clarence the Amazing Magician (Michael Caine) parks at the house and takes up residence in a room recently vacated by a death. He is feisty yet he is also a bit morose, remembering his beloved deceased wife Annie who divorced him for his philandering - a fact for which he has never forgiven himself. Clarence and Edward gradually align; Edward learns some magic tricks from Clarence, while Clarence finds a fellow soul who will care about his plight. Clarence gifts the paranormal obsessed Edward with a séance and Edward shares secrets with Clarence - secrets such as standing before a mirror and uttering the name of a departed until they appear.

Not much changes around the retirement home until Dad foolishly tries to woo one of the young helpers and is recorded by Edward, releasing the recording to Mum, which sets in place a divorce. Edward is devastated at what he has done and turns to Clarence, but Clarence is set on suicide to join his Annie. How each of these two bruised males interact and help each other accept both life and death is the resolution of the story. The performances by Caine and Milner are remarkably fine and they are surrounded by some of our better elderly actors (Sylvia Syms, Rosemary Harris, Peter Vaughan Lesley Howard etc). Though the theme of the film is much about dying, it remains a buoyant, life affirming story of how desperately we all need to interact with others to give life special meaning. A very good film and one of Michael Caine's finest and most subtle performances on film.

Grady Harp

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.

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!