IS ANYBODY THERE?

with Michael Caine, Bill Milner, Anne-Marie Duff and David Morrissey

A Film Review by Lola Moloney

Armed with the knowledge that both Michael Caine and his wife of 38 years cried when they first viewed this film, and the requisite wad of tissues stuffed into the corner of my purse, I set out to immerse myself in another glorious performance by Sir Michael Caine. As usual, he did not disappoint. Nor did his equally compelling 10 year old counterpart, Bill Milner, whom I had the pleasure of seeing on film for the first time.

Is Anybody There? tells the classic tale of an old man and a young boy whose paths cross at a time when each are stalled at one of life's many crossroads. As their individual struggles to move forward become intertwined, an unwitting alliance emerges, forming the heart and soul of this story.

Set in England in the late 1980s, much of the film's action takes place in a properly dreary seaside house that has been jerry-rigged into a properly dreary "old people’s" home by a middle-class couple scrambling for financial solvency. (Anne-Marie Duff as Mum, and David Morrissey as Dad)

Michael Caine is "The Amazing Clarence," a has-been (and maybe never was) ex-professional magician who reluctantly and "only temporarily" moves into the home carrying a suitcase full of resentments, after crashing his "The Amazing Clarence" billboard truck. Bill Milner plays ten year old Edward, the insular son of the proprietors, Mum and Dad. Along with an insatiable curiosity about death, ghosts and the afterlife, he, too, carries his own bundle of resentments for being ousted from his bedroom to make way for the new resident.

This film has many tasks to perform, not the least of which is to infuse depth and poignancy into a thin plotline and a rather ordinary script. The sole responsiblitiy for accomplishing this seems to rest squarely on the fine acting abilities of Caine and Milner, who rise to the occasion with ease and brilliance. With the exception of a few phrases, the words spoken by Clarence and Edward become almost incidental, as their finely-tuned emotions emerge from a place of honest-to-goodness organic truthfulness. When a pause or a turn of the head speaks louder than the words around it, you know you are witnessing the craft of acting at its most delicious. So adept are these two actors, they could be spewing gibberish and we would still "get it."

Director John Crowley and writer Peter Harness are to be applauded for negotiating a fine line between providing much-needed moments of comic relief, amidst the frailties of mind and body exibited by these aged residents, without making us feel guilty for laughing out loud. An abundance of gallows humor mixed with light-hearted tenderness, sobering sadness, and everything in between, seems to do the trick. This is a nuanced endeavor, that, while not executed perfectly, succeeds at least most of the time.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the film's ability to stave off the predictability of "old age" character stereotypes. Think childishly flirtatious little ladies with too much rouge and bent-over curmudgeons oblivious to all but their flask-swigging and body aches. Equally disappointing are the sprinkling of scenes that seem contrived and do nothing to move the story forward. Think three women sitting on a couch watching TV, the center one staring blankly ahead popping bubble wrap, the other two looking mildly annoyed at the disturbance. Cute. Giggle-generating. Contrived.

These are minor quibbles in light of the stellar performances of a talented cast and the magical quality of a touching story about the farther reaches of the human lifespan.

Warning: this film contains a suicide attempt, a couple of corpses, plastic garbage bags and duct tape, a severed appendage, a séance or two, a ghost sighting, and a peculiar electric chair lift that seems to transport feelings and as well as people . . . who may or may not be alive. Did I mention "dark comedy"?

All this and you will walk out of the theater feeling uplifted and positively thrilled to be alive. Talk about magic!

Afterthoughts . . .

I remember the days when I watched films about the elderly with a comfy sense of dispassionate interest. I did not relate. The notion of a feeble, dependent and perhaps, not fully competent, "me" was nowhere to be found in my psyche.

What a difference a couple of decades makes! Not that I am anywhere near the bottom of that hill, mind you! My point is simply that a viewer's response to this film, or any story that portrays the sometimes not-so-pretty decline of old age, often correlates with the current era of life one inhabits. Is Anybody There? is no exception.