[Ed - Still clearing the backlog so another late post - bear with me. (Originally posted 11th Oct 09)]

What do you get when you combine some ageing British actors like Rosemary Harris (Aunt May in Spiderman), Elizabeth Spriggs (Fat Lady in Harry Potter), Garrick Hagon (Biggs in Star Wars) and Michael Caine (Do I even need to say it?) with David Morrissey, Anne-Marie Duff and Bill Milner. Well if you add in John Crowley and David Heyman and some cameras you get a film.

First, an admission. I didn’t get to see this film in the cinema. I try not to review DVDs, mainly on the basis that reviewing a DVD is difficult. With the extras that come on these shiny discs people watch them differently from each other, they like strange, different things and just generally I prefer actual films. However the highly limited release of this film has meant that I had to wait ’till the DVD release to see it. The film is Is Anybody There? and it was released yesterday (September 14th) by Optimum.

If no one objects, and even if someone does, I’ll skip talking about extras because this is about the film. As long as that’s clear, and you’re all sitting comfortably, then I shall begin.

The story is that of a young boy, Edward. He lives with his parents in the old people’s home they run. He had to give up his own room, which had Paddington Bear wallpaper, and move into the smaller room, to make room for a guest. He’s not happy about this, as you can probably guess. There is one upside for Edward though. He’s very interesting in the paranormal, especially what happens after death. When people die he has a habit of leaving a tape recorder in the room to try and hear the spirit as it leaves. Then a man moves in. His name’s Clarence and he was once a magician. The story follows the unlikely pair, mainly through the eyes of Edward, as they help each other. Clarence helping Edward to concentrate on living, the boy helping his elderly friend confront his past.

If there’s a bad story then no matter how much talent you throw at it there won’t be a film. Names like Harris, Spriggs and Caine may well conjure up images of great performances from the past, they are indeed great actors, but without a story, what good is acting talent? Besides the performances of the older stars is that of Bill Milner. Coming straight off the back of Son of Rambow into this Milner puts in another brilliant performance.

The story here is both touching and funny. So easily could the balance of jokes and seriousness tip one way or the other, but the line this film walks is so finely balanced it works perfectly. There are times when you want to cry, times to laugh out loud, and it’s this in the film that makes me feel I left out.

It was clearly designed or a cinema audience, to share the joy and sadness, but unfortunately this was not possible for me. It is a shame that such a wonderful British film didn’t receive the same love we show for big American blockbusters like Transformers, compared to which this is far superior.

This is a brilliant film, if you saw it in the cinema you know you want this DVD, if you didn’t you owe it to yourself to pick up this brilliant piece of British cinema.

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This content is reposted from the Random Blog of Random Blogginess. The original post can be found here. It is used, with permission, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

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