Real World Awards
IS ANYBODY THERE?
One of Britain's favourite old-timers and new rising stars come together in this immensely warm and affectionate observation of ageing, alienation and death. If that sounds too depressing by half, the movie is anything but a downer, being full of humour and light and wonderfully uplifting life.
It's the 1980s and young Edward (Son of Rambow's Bill Milner) is less than ecstatic that his mum and dad (Marie-Anne Duff and David Morrissey) have chosen to turn their house into an old people's home whose inmates have a habit of dropping off this mortal coil before he can capture the sound of their souls leaving their bodies on his dodgy old tape-to-tape recorder. To add insult to injury he has to give up his bedroom when new resident Clarence (Sir Michael Caine) arrives. After initial hostile manoeuvres against the old man, Edward starts to actually like hanging out with him when he discovers Clarence was once a famed magician, The Amazing Clarence, and can teach him lots of cool tricks to impress the bullies at school. Soon, the lonely and slightly confused old man and the rather stroppy schoolboy have become bosom buddies who get into all sorts of scrapes.
Young Bill Milner may be just a whippersnapper, but he proves an impressive foil for Sir Michael and their scenes together are full of banter and joshing and brilliant dialogue - when Clarence discovers the friendless Edward has an unhealthy interest in death and séances he says to him 'why don't you join hands with the living?' Sir Michael is now a formidable acting force and he gives another brilliant performance here showing the utter horrors of getting old -- all jibbering simpletons wetting themselves is how he puts it. But apart from the performances it is the absolute peach of a script that stands out here. It manages to steer the right side of sentimentality because it isn't all happy, cheery, chirpy niceness, but is spiky and uncomfortable and sometimes even downright nasty. This is this year's version of Venus and deserves just as much praise.
Dee Pilgrim
Add to
Send to a friend
Post a comment
Comments
No comments....
Graduate Employers
| Total Professions | TotalProfessions.com was created to guide and inspire you about th... | more |
| D&AD | What we do Well, if you were keeping it short, if you were writ... | more |
| RICS - Royal Institution of Charte... | RICS is the world's leading qualification when it comes to profess... | more |
| TravelWorks | TravelWorks offers a myriad of volunteer and paid work opportuniti... | more |
| ESCP Europe Business School | Founded in 1819 and now one of the world’s oldest business s... | more |
| Towers Watson | Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt have come together as Towers Watson... | more |
| Nottingham University Business Sch... | Postgraduate study at Nottingham University Business School offers... | more |
| nucleargraduates | The UK’s nuclear industry is facing its biggest challenge in... | more |
| AXA UK | With 210,000 employees and distributors worldwide and a presence i... | more |
| PwC | PwC is the one firm for all talented graduates. As one of the wor... | more |
Latest Graduate Jobs
| Title | Organisation | Apply by |
|---|---|---|
Company Secretarial/Governance Graduate - Immediate start
|
PwC | 03 Jun 2014 |
| Radiological Protection Engineer | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| Materials and Metallurgy | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| Project Management | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| Waste Management and Environmental Science | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| Project and Safety Care Engineers | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| Mechanical Engineer | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| Chemical Engineer | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
| C&I/Electrical Engineering | Magnox | 31 Jan 2012 |
|
Exciting new business Placement opportunities within Human R...
|
PwC | 31 Dec 2012 |
Graduate Case Studies
|
JONATHON WEBSTER - STARTUP SUMMER SCHEME PARTICIPANTJonathon Webster is studying Information Systems Engineering at Imperial College London ... more |
|
VICTORIA MOREMON - SOLICITORVictoria Moremon is a solicitor working across the private client and residential property and land estates departments at Latimer Hinks. She studied law at Teesside University ... more |
|
PUJA MEHAN - TRAINEE SOLICITORPuja Mehan is a Trainee Solicitor with Herbet Smith. She studied Law LLB at King's College, University of London. ... more |
|
MICHAEL SKREIN - CSR PARTNERMichael Skrein is the CSR Partner for Reed Smith. He studied modern history at Oxford before doing and MA in international relations in California. ... more |
Graduate Advice
|
Less than Satisfactory: UK schools and colleges Ofsted (who inspect schools in the UK) just released their annual report,... more |
|
Getting Help from the Professionals Recently PUSH asked its viewers if they knew what a professional body was.... more |
|
Famous playwright Alan Bennett has today warned that the increased tuition... more |
|
Eyes opening.....or eyes closing? How that year out can wreck or reinforce your career... more |
Comments