Is Anybody There? (2009)

People are voting emotionally.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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.

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.

I had great hopes for this film, but we both decided to go to be 2/3rds of the way through. The cast was excellent, but therein lies part of the problem. Many of the cameo roles lampooned the characteristics of those they sought to portray, in the most grotesquely unsubtle manner. Michael Caine was his usual self, but the irascibility made him too un-redeeming. One looked for likability, and found it cloaked. Which rather describes the whole film. In the end the the excessive morbidity swamps the film. It becomes little more than a self-indulgent lampoon of growing old.There are better examples of the genre, often with much more acute and perceptive humour - something the subject matter badly requires, but which this film sadly lacked.

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.