Alicia I love this movie so much

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

SnoopyStyle It's 80's England. Edward is an angry young boy. His mother has turned the family home into an old age home. He has lost his room to one of the old folks. His father is going through a mid-life crisis. He has questions about death and uses his tape recorder on the old people. One day, Clarence (Michael Caine) arrives almost running him over with his van. He's a magician suffering from the lost of his love. The two bitter souls find friendship and salvation in each other.It's a little dark comedy. The movie is best with Michael Caine and the little kid together. It would have been great if they take off on an extended road trip away from that grim home. It would have given Caine more screen time and the home is too grim. Caine does big emotional acting although it could have been great to have more broad comedy. Caine and the kid are good together. There are a couple of big powerful acting scenes for Caine.

Jackson Booth-Millard 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!

linnet100 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.

gradyharp John Crowley has been creating sensitive films that deal with difficult subjects (Intermission, Boy A) and somehow pulls them off brilliantly. IS ANYBODY THERE? on the surface is a simple story about a friendship that develops between a somewhat despondent elderly man and a young boy who wants to know what happens after life. In part due to the writing of Peter Harness and in part due to the stellar performances by Michael Caine and Bill Milner, this little Indie film slipped through the cracks of public notice only to be discovered once it has been released on DVD. It is worth the wait. Edward (Bill Milner) is a ten-year-old boy living with his parents, Mum (Anne-Marie Duff) and Dad (David Morrissey) in 1980s England. In rough financial times the family has converted their small home into a retirement center where elderly folks progress towards their ends, grumble and gather for games and are entertained by whomever happens by. Edward, put out because he has given up his room for the old codgers, fancies ghosts and paranormal activities that he attempts to register on a tape recorder whenever one of the tenants dies. His life is one of frustration at having to live with the old folks, until one day by chance one Clarence the Amazing Magician (Michael Caine) parks at the house and takes up residence in a room recently vacated by a death. He is feisty yet he is also a bit morose, remembering his beloved deceased wife Annie who divorced him for his philandering - a fact for which he has never forgiven himself. Clarence and Edward gradually align; Edward learns some magic tricks from Clarence, while Clarence finds a fellow soul who will care about his plight. Clarence gifts the paranormal obsessed Edward with a séance and Edward shares secrets with Clarence - secrets such as standing before a mirror and uttering the name of a departed until they appear. Not much changes around the retirement home until Dad foolishly tries to woo one of the young helpers and is recorded by Edward, releasing the recording to Mum, which sets in place a divorce. Edward is devastated at what he has done and turns to Clarence, but Clarence is set on suicide to join his Annie. How each of these two bruised males interact and help each other accept both life and death is the resolution of the story. The performances by Caine and Milner are remarkably fine and they are surrounded by some of our better elderly actors (Sylvia Syms, Rosemary Harris, Peter Vaughan Lesley Howard etc). Though the theme of the film is much about dying, it remains a buoyant, life affirming story of how desperately we all need to interact with others to give life special meaning. A very good film and one of Michael Caine's finest and most subtle performances on film. Grady Harp