Good movie but grossly overrated

Absolutely Brilliant!

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This film proves that an old and well loved actor like the star of The Dark Knight and Inception can still cut it as the leading actor and not just supporting, and of course the following year he became Harry Brown. Basically, set in the 1980's, in an old people's home near the seaside unusual ten year old boy Edward (Son of Rambow's Bill Milner) is growing up surrounded by old people, and of course dying and death, so he has become fascinated if not obsessive with the subject, especially finding out evidence of the afterlife. While his Mum (Anne-Marie Duff) struggles to keep the business afloat and his Dad (David Morrissey) is having some form of mid-life crisis, Edward is making recordings of the elderly residents to try and discover what happens when they die, but what he really needs is a friend, being the lonely boy he is. They start by getting on each others' nerves, but slowly he forms an unlikely friendship with elderly retired magician Clarence (Sir Michael Caine), the latest arrival to the home, he has a liberating streak of anarchy. As they spend time together the old man wants to help Edward find an answer to his question and the boy wants to help Clarence come to terms with the past, he is also suffering the early stages of dementia. Clarence gets to perform one last magic show, which has comedic consequences for a man's finger, but like all the old people he cannot escape death and dies tragically, Edward is devastated, so much so that he knows it is best to live in the moment. Also starring Coronation Street's Thelma Barlow as Ena, Spider-Man's Rosemary Harris as Elsie, Leslie Phillips as Reg, Ralph Riach as Clive, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone's Elizabeth Spriggs as Prudence, The Queen's Sylvia Syms as Lilian, Peter Vaughan as Bob, Ralph Ineson as Mr. Kelly, Larry David as Fireman and Miles Jupp as Vicar. Caine gives a marvellous authentic and touching performance as the troubled old man who through friendship finds enjoyment of living, and young Milner is likable as the lonely eccentric boy with an unusual interest and finding equal comfort, the supporting cast members are all fine as well, the story is simple enough, an unlikely friendship based on the subject of mortality, it may feel a bit awkward on occasion and lapse into sentimentality, but the occasionally sometimes dark humour and poignant moments rescue it, overall it is an enjoyable enough drama. Worth watching!

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.

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!