Sabrina Portman This was a terrible, terrible movie! Oh my god, I can't even get the words out. It's freaking' dramatic. As in 'dramatically bad', not as in 'this is a dramatic movie'. Oh my word.I did not have one moment where I empathized or sympathized with any of the characters other than the older dude doing the dishes whose name I don't even remember. This movie tries to portray Halam as if he's freaking' endearing (or understandable) when he's busy spying on people, with those typical background tunes and everything, and he's not. He's a creep, he's creepy, he peeks into windows when people are unsuspectingly doing their own things. And the ending just confirmed my feelings. I wish it wasn't so, all the while I was wishing I would stop seeing him as a creep but I didn't. Terrible movie. Voyeurism is not endearing, no matter how troubled you are.

FlashCallahan Seventeen year-old Hallam Foe is a weird teenager that misses his mother, who committed suicide, drowning in a lake nearby their house in Edinburgh after an overdose of sleeping pills. Hallam spends his spare time peeping at the locals and blames his stepmother Verity Foe, accusing her of killing his mother. After a discussion with his father Julius Foe, Hallam sneaks out from his house and travels to Edinburgh, where he sees Kate Breck and becomes obsessed with her because of her resemblance to his mother. Kate hires Hallam to work in the kitchen of the hotel where she works and they have a strange romance, while Hallam reaches his maturity the hardest way....Now this could be classed as a kind of Psycho for snobs. Yes, it's very impressive to look at, and the performances are great, but it concentrates too much on the mother fixation to convince us that this is some kind of psychedelic coming of age movie, or the Anti-Ferris Beuller if you would.It's not very nice to watch in some scenes, and it has a downbeat feel all the way through, But Bell and Miles put some much needed human elements into it, thanks to their decidedly weird relationship.The soundtrack is absolutely amazing, and just about saves the film, but it doesn't really make a lot of sense unfortunately, it's just a film about a boy who cannot forget about his mother, tries to get away from it, finds a woman who looks like his mother, watches her have sex, and in the last minute of the film decides not to dwell and find himself instead.A bit bland to be honest.

Stampsfightclub Troubled by his mother's death, Hallam Foe (Bell) runs away to Edinburgh where he finds a woman who looks startling like his mother The nature of Hallam Foe shows a young lad fighting an onslaught of emotions after the sudden and complicated death of his mother. The suspicious nature of the death plagues Hallam and from the very beginning we have a very real and interesting mystery drama on our hands.British cinema has reawakened over the past 5 or so years. From the national biased and racist drama This is England to the sexual stereotyping social teens in Kidulthood our countries are not afraid to tackle significant and relative ideologies head on.Hallam Foe, whilst encoding conceptual meaning of peeping toms, murder and family, doesn't have the scripting to suggest it is a preacher. It feels more established, like a string of events that keeps rolling and rolling until the sharp end is strung. Everything flows very smoothly and the progression of harmless nosey Parker to obsession becomes an infatuation ideology to comprehend.The reasoning behind Hallam's curiosity is seemingly obvious and then picks up a whole different meaning after a shock night out. This 2007 picture packs a dramatic punch with Hallam's obsessive hobby and whilst the emotional depth may not be as strong as Tom Turgoose's character's bullied political stance, there is no denying the significant relevance of the, what is no now regarded as, perverse nature of the central protagonist.Jamie Bell delivers a withdrawn stance as Hallam, a clever depiction for a character who wants to conform and say what he feels whilst holding himself in his own regard. The title character is strong to lead, adds the necessary drama whilst never letting up on the controversial stalker ideology whilst never being too in your face to be a preacher.The scripting never makes you feel like you're being force fed issues and regulations like some British films do, as with East is East for example. Perhaps calling this a romantic love story with drama is too generalized. There is a significant heap of relevance and understanding to digest as Hallam tackles his way through a job with the knowledge of his step mother's nature on his conscious. Mystery, romance and drama are all present in a strongly knit script that packs comedy as well as drama.As with your typical British film the scene setting and adjustment in context is spot on. The opening scenes of Hallam walking around the country are splendid but the best shot comes when he is climbing the roofs of Edinburgh with his boss.What I must say is that whilst programmes such as Skins and films such as Brassed off all have relevance to real life is relative, Hallam Foe is perhaps a more established show that does not showcase its issues, and for that reason it is up there with the best British films. Not to mention it has the best soundtrack for any British film.

LostHighway101 David Mackenzie's follow-up to the brilliant Young Adam wants to be a feel-good underdog story of a lonely voyeur who is trying to confront some psycho-sexual issues with his dead mother. It wants to be gritty, realistic, and mysterious. At the same time, it wants to be funny and nonjudgmental of its disturbed lead as he establishes himself as an adult.To meet this end, the film tries hard to be youthful. Its poster has hand-drawn letters looking like that of Juno. Its original soundtrack is comprised of fast-paced indie rock which tries to convince the audience that Hallam is OK; just a little misguided. But strangely the film is anything but youthful.Like Young Adam this film's central mystery concerns a drowned woman- in this case Hallam's mother. Young Adam keeps its mystery quiet, contemplative, and paced well enough to hit you with the truths as they come. Hallam Foe does the opposite. It foregrounds its character's psychosis so clearly and so early that he never really does anything outside his expected parameters. The opening scene is Hallam in his treehouse watching his sister fooling around with her boyfriend. Hallam swiftly interrupts, asserting his presence in the household. Here we see everything that Hallam will do for the rest of the movie.The mystery surrounding his mother's drowning is whether it was suicide or murder by his father's girlfriend. The audience can never really trust Hallam because, besides being creepy, we think his obsession has led him close to insanity. This hindered the mystery element for me because Hallam is too sporadic to be relatable. Right when he's found some clues that would support his claim he runs away from home, at first it appearing to be looking for the police. Then he gets extremely sidetracked by a girl who resembles his mother, which frustratingly leads the story away from the mystery element.While Jamie Bell does bring out some very endearing traits in his lost character, he was limited by the obviousness of his psychological needs. This movie is in no way mysterious, yet it is not blunt either. It tries to be realistic in dealing with such issues, but it adds a very self-conscious spunk which registers itself as quite the opposite. It goes for a soundtrack-heavy, Trainspotting attitude to help the audience root for a protagonist who scales buildings, picks locks, and camps out for the sake of voyeurism. These urban peeping tom adventures Hallam engages in are way too difficult for an inward-drawn country boy to engage in and they are not sexy, giddy, or pleasant. They are more neutral than anything; not propelling the character or story. Mackenzie makes you understand Hallam, yet he fails to build common ground.He expects you to enjoy Hallam's trials and tribulations without much ideological justification. The film hinges on its audience's perspective on voyeurism/the kind of person who engages in it. Obviously, most people would be disgusted by it. And Hallam Foe realizes that, but it does not let us see Hallam weigh the morality of his decisions. He goes from person to person, trying to fill his deep void. There is a particularly disturbing line from Hallam's love interest Kate where she drunkenly says "I love creepy boys," perhaps asking the audience to do the same. The line tries to foreshadow her understanding of him (her motivation remains vague throughout) and tries to further us from judging him. It's not hard to like Hallam, but it is very hard to participate in his adventure- if it is even an adventure at all. All the while, the film tries to use its flamboyant soundtrack to mask its indecisive mood.Great performances are weighed down by a film with a weak third act, muddy development, and needlessly ambiguous direction from Mackenzie. Recently this film was re-named for a US release, and for what reason? Not only is it more unappealing, but the hard truth is that the Hallam character never earns the title 'mister.'