martys-7 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.

Jamie Ward 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)

sp2303 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!

charlytully 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?