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.
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.