Very well executed

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

A Brilliant Conflict

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It's hard to tell what being human really is supposed to look like from these nebulous vignettes by Robin Williams. The best I can come up with is the above equation, but I don't really think that was his goal in this ill-advised attempt at a serious film about the subject.First, the narrators, far from provoking interest in the upcoming material, bore us to death with pretentious generalizations and leading questions until we no longer care much what's coming as long as it means they'll soon shut up for a while as the next vignette is dramatized.Second, Robin's recurring male character, Hector, presents us with a rather doubtful example of humanity, since he is out of step with the rest of his peers. How can Hector be a valid example when there are so many humans that contradict his character? Far from being an everyman, he is a marginal example at best. He never seems to aspire to anything higher than his own selfish desires. He takes advantage of people with nobler aspirations, and then wonders why they disparage him as a loser and a fool. If being human means being largely clueless about virtues, I guess that shows something, but I'm not buying it. Using a recurring male character as the focus of humanity seems also to be rather sexist, doesn't it?Then there's the whole question of whether reincarnation is implied..... Unfortunately, nothing in this film is consistent enough to say one way or the other. If Hector is being reincarnated, he's going to be at it for a long time, since he's not learning anything from one cycle to the next. He hates being a slave, but then becomes the same type of foolish master that he himself had in a previous incarnation. I think it's best to just not consider this question further, since either way this film proves nothing about being human either way.Bottom line, if Hector is being human, then count me out of humanity, PLEASE!

The life you live will be the same over and over again. You will repeat your lessons again and again in various forms until you have learned them. After learning it, there's evolution and wisdom. This is what can be said about this film except that it presents its stories without having this sort of spiritual value. It brings this idea of the eternal returning throughout this main character but it is developed almost like a fairy tale taken out of a children's book.Travelling through different countries and periods of time, going from the Celts cavemen to the modern New York businessman, "Being Human" has Robin Williams playing a character named Hector and his appearances in distinct centuries trying to learn what means to be an human being. In the five short stories created here, Hector, living as an Celtic in the highlands, had his wife and children taken away by barbarians; was the slave of a dumb master (John Turturro) in a more civilized era; an married man who fell in love with an foreign woman, a few centuries later; a military during the Portugual's Maritime Expansion on Africa, conquering new lands and new treasures; and as troubled divorced man trying to reconciliate with his children of whom he hasn't seen since the end of his marriage. The movie fails in being real or accurate enough in all of the stories except in the last one which is very close to us.Slow, of mannered delivery and hardly getting better as the stories unfold, "Being Human" is the kind of film that really follows its lessons, it'll only grow on you after countless views. In my case four attempts, of these in two I fell asleep (but always believing that there was something interesting there), one in which I watched the whole thing and didn't like and the last one in which my perception changed and end up being a good film, far from being a masterpiece that it could be. So, you'll have to watch this film over and over until you get something from it, then you can evolve into really saying if this is a good or a bad film. This whole idea of a man trapped in strange and quite horrendous situations where every kind of decision ruin his life but always running to something else thinking it'll be better and lead him to a good life, was brilliantly presented in a book called "The Star Rover" by Jack London. In it, the main character is a prisoner that can recall his past lives as a way of escaping from his current pain of being tortured. But in those lives things don't get any better and he's always getting into more and more trouble. "Being Human" falls as an pretentious art film with symbolisms that never work and stories that are difficult to be involved with. Luckily, they have Williams as a main actor and we root for him whatever the Hector he's playing. We care for Hector in all of his situations because there's something there that is involving enough to make us imagining what kind of decisions we would make if we were him. In at least, one of the stories you'll put yourself into Hector's shoes. Won't blame director/writer Bill Forsyth for the flaws presented here since this is not his original project, Warner Bros. forced him to cut the film and include an narration that is quite excessive and too much explanatory. The narration (provided by Theresa Russell) of a film destined to grown up's treats its audience as children, explaining many things we're seeing on the screen. It ruined some parts of the film. Result: poor criticism, an box-office failure and now who knows this film? I sincerely hope that one day Forsyth come out of the shadows and show to the world this film in its integrity in a director's cut DVD (even the known version is hard to find). The things that attracted me into "Being Human" are the quality of the performances, not only Williams but also Turturro, Lorraine Bracco, Hector Elizondo, Jonathan Hyde, Anna Galiena, William H. Macy among others; the beautiful cinematography; Michael Gibbs fantastic musical score (specially the music presented when the movie enters into the 20th Century, an highly agitated theme). The story, at times, knows how to hold our interest but only for those who have an open mind to accept the concept of a man living over and over a similar life that bears only difference of costumes and periods of time. Hector's conditions and the way love acts in his life are quite the same, yet he fails to learn something from these experiences. Very problematic but not enough to make you feel bad about it, "Being Human" comes as a good film about valuable and noble lessons that sometimes crosses our paths in this long journey of life. 7/10

Well, lets see. aha ha, right, Being Human. Well lets start with saying that this was the most outrageously boring film in the entire world. I would rather eat popcorn staring at the wall at home. Robin Williams is my favorite actor, but this is my least favorite movie. It started so peaceful, the trailer was nice, the cover was interesting, but the movie was like walking through thick goo, it takes you ages to get through, and you are not comfortable. Now what a movie ay? If you want a story, read a book. There was not much music, practically no good effects or camera moves. Costumes were alright, the dialogue was good but tedious, and plus, no real excitement through the whole thing. Lets just say, it is a bit different hmm? The story is meaningfu but i would understand it more on a book. While you watch it, you don't concentrate on the movie but the things around you. You start counting your teeth, or the tiles on the floor. You bite your nails and do whatever you do when bored (e.g. eat). It is truly a movie for your home with a hot meal and while its raining. But, watch it anyway, it may be appealing to you, but no matter what happens, prepare for a sleepy adventure!!!!!

I've seen a lot of Robin Williams movies, but after this one, I must draw the line. "Being Human" may possibly be the worst movie I have ever seen. The concept is dangerous, edgy, over the top- a modern man's family struggle is paralleled by other struggles throughout the history of man in order to suggest that there is one story that sort of gets played over and over again, just in different ways. However, this movie falls short in execution; way short. In fact, other than that it has sort of an intriguing concept, it plain stinks. And that's not an exaggeration. Anyone that can sit through this two-hour bomb without passing the time by making fun of it either thinks too much or doesn't think at all. It makes me wonder if this is one of those stories that they came up with by putting 100 monkeys at 100 typewriters and seeing what they got. I think that's how they made West Side Story too, but don't quote me on that.My rating: Stinky