Is Anybody There? Movie Review

Is Anybody There? Movie Review

Rating 6/10
Cast: Michael Caine, Bill Milner, Anne-Marie Duff, David Morrissey
Director: John Crowley
1980s England - and in the stifling atmosphere of an old people's home, we find death and dementia not too far away.
10-year-old Edward (Bill Milner) lives in the care home run by his parents - but to get by on a daily basis, Edward has a morbid fascination with death (perhaps inevitably given where he lives 24-7)
Obsessed by the final moments of some of the residents, Edward spends his time recording their last dying breaths in an attempt to find out what comes after.
One day, while out walking and listening to the exit of an elderly resident on a pair of headphones, he's nearly run over by Michael Caine's ancient magician Clarence.
After this initially frosty meeting Clarence checks into the rest home - and after Clarence succumbs to his suicidal thoughts, Edward is drawn to him as he realizes that he is the only person to have experienced near death - and he could hold the answers to many of the questions Edward's been after.
An uneasy friendship grows and the pair both learn to rage against the dying of the light.
Is Anybody There? is a tear-jerker in parts - but it avoids you rushing for the tissues because of the towering performance of Michael Caine.
Once again, Caine manages to turn what could have been a fairly mawkish script into some truly emotive moments - there's pathos in spades here as Clarence first visits the home; he's shocked to realize that he will ultimately end up here but too weary to fight against the inevitability of his condition.
In any other actor's hands these moments could have been trite and overplayed for tears - but Caine makes Clarence relatable as he begins to wallow in a sea of regret and cantankerousness as he begins his descent down into senility and the grave.
Bill Milner's Edward isn't a bad performance - while his morbid fascination and depressing endless questioning is a product of where he's been brought up, the sense of playfulness and earnest desire to learn about the afterlife and find some meaning in the world make the character rise above what could have been a tearful, doleful mire.
The only unwelcome note in Is Anybody There? is the family marriage melodrama which blights the final portion of the film - it's an unnecessary footnote to what's gone before and seems an unwelcome bookend to the drama (although it's almost forgiven because there's a nice pay off right to the central story at the end.)

Is Anybody There? may be predictable in parts but it's the pivotal performance of Michael Caine and a vein of black humour throughout as both Clarence and Edward tackle the reality of old age and regret which make it just rise above what could nearly have dragged it down.