Is Anybody There?

Plot synopsis:
Growing up and growing old never played so poignantly as it does in John Crowley's Is Anybody There? The film grapples with the sad truths of getting older and losing loved ones, all the while maintaining a sardonic wit and sincere warmth. Coming of age in a family-run rest home, the reclusive, death-obsessed Edward (Bill Milner, Son of Rambow) wiles away his days tormenting his parents elderly residents and secretly tape-recording them in search of answers about the afterlife. Edward finds a kindred spirit in Clarence (Michael Caine), the curmudgeonly, retired magician who begrudgingly takes up residence at the guest home. The two strike up an unlikely friendship that helps Clarence come to terms with losing his wife, and Edward finds a way out of his shell. Milner holds his own alongside veteran Caine with a biting yet charming performance. Anne-Marie Duff (Notes on a Scandal) and David Morrissey (Basic Instinct 2) offer up moving support as Edwards working-class parents, who struggle to hold onto their marriage while making ends meet. The colorful cast of senior citizens, which includes seasoned actors Rosemary Harris (Aunt May from the Spiderman films) and Karl Johnson (Hot Fuzz, Rome), provides some of the film's most melancholy and comic moments. Along with stellar performances from the impressive ensemble, Is Anybody There? is well-scripted and beautifully shot. Though it deals with some of lifes toughest moments, this is a film that is sure to appeal to audiences of all ages.Ten-year-old Edward lives in his family-run retirement home. While his mother struggles to keep the family business afloat and his father copes with the onset of a mid-life crisis, Edward leads an increasingly lonely existence until he meets Clarence, a retired magician and grieving widower who refuses to give in gracefully to old age. The two strike up an unlikely friendship that helps them both remember what magic is possible when life is lived to its fullest.

Tags: paranormal

Review:
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.
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.
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.
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..
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???
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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..
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.
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.
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.
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.
Edward (Bill Milner) is a ten-year-old boy living with his parents, Mum (Anne-Marie Duff) and Dad (David Morrissey) in 1980s England.
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.
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.
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.
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..
I am not going to spoil anything so I am just going to say that it is about a young boy growing up in an old people's home and a man living there dealing with his regrets.
The chemistry between Michael Cain and Bill Milner was very good and really does make the film the heart-warming comedy- drama that it is.
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.
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.
Michael Cain is as good as I ever saw him Bill Milner is no less impressive as a 10 years old that grew up too quickly and have to re learn how to be a kid again so he can grow up the right way, and Anne-Marie Duff, is completing the trio with a supporting role that is the supporting pillar of the whole story but has no name (in the cast listing) just a family function - Mum.If you get the chance to see it, don't miss this one, it's a keeper..
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.
'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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
Unfortunately, while his performance is good, this movie joins the collection of his movies not worth the time to watch.This is the story of a preteen boy (Edward) in 1980s England living with parents who have converted their home into a home for the elderly, closer to a hospice for those waiting to die rather than a retirement home really.
Along comes Mr. Caine as Clarence, a widower and retired magician, who wants little to do with Edward, the other residents, or life at the home.
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...
Set in the 1980s seaside England, this film can be a great coming-of-age story with authenticity and may give a sense of nostalgia for some.Bill Milner plays 10-year-old Edward, who is a curious child full of questions about ghosts and death.
This story is about Edward's childhood in a old people's home run by his parents.
As the story develops, Edward develops a special bond with Clarence, played by the amazing Michael Caine.The start of the movie gives us a nice description of Edward's life and introduces us to a lot of characters in the house.
Caine's acting is a great strength of the film, and it totally brings out Clarence's character to the audience.