Is Anybody There? [2008] (English) - a bitter-sweet tale of an old man and a boy

"Is anybody there?" Sounds like an innocent question, doesn't it? A little boy - hardly more than 10 years old - is obsessed with it. What happens after death? Do we turn into ghosts? Is there life after death? Do we just switch off after death or do we linger behind? Is it just emptiness we leave behind? Or is there anybody there? A truly morbid topic for so little a boy to be obsessed with. While the movie does not really delve too deeply into the roots of the kid's obsession for life after death, it does spin a pretty entertaining yarn about life before death...

The boy in question is Edward, the only son of a couple who run an old people's home. A caring and dedicated mother who is too busy caring for the old and making ends meet, a jobless father caught in a desperate middle-age crisis, and a home full of old grumpy people. Not the best of the environments for a young fellow to spend his growing years in. And obviously Edwards resents the fact. The only consolation is that he has a house full of ideal subjects for his experimentation. All he has to do is wait for one of the oldies to drop dead... With a home that's not a normal home for a 10-year old, and a hobby that's not a normal hobby for that age, Edward hardly has many friends... With resentment growing as fast as his obsession, he is usually quite grumpy and full of mischief...

Then one day the old age home has a new recruit. An old fellow who is as grumpy, if not more, as Edward. His name's Clarence. A fellow with a bitter past and a dreary future... A self-respecting guy who resents his having to rely on anyone else. At first the grumpy, reclusive Clarence fascinates Edward. No wonder. In his heyday, Clarence used to be a magician. But no more. Now he is just an old man, with a past full of bad choices and a future that's destined to go straight downhill...

An uneasy bond starts forming between the afterlife-obsessed Edward and the resentful bitter magician Clarence... Old-age despair and resentment collide with the hope of youth, giving birth to an unlikely friendship... A friendship that transcends age and generation barrier... A friendship that would change both their lives...

The movie captures some of the most basic and raw human emotions so effortlessly with such tenderness and empathy that one is left marveling at the skilled direction, the perfect script and such superb acting by everyone involved. But it hardly gives one an opportunity to mull on such nitty-gritties... The story sweeps up the viewers and plunges them into the lives of Edward, Clarence, Edward's parents and the quirky denizens of their little old-age home...

For a story that tackles really serious human emotions like despair, bitterness and fear of death, it manages to entertain pretty effectively. Its full of humorous and tender moments. Edward's innocent antics are captured so effectively. It also unflinchingly depicts the helplessness that old age thrusts upon a self-respecting and self-reliant person... And the bitterness of our past choices that haunt us as we grow older - the ghosts of our past following us like an ever-present shadow... It shows us the trials and tribulations of growing old with empathy and understanding. And it paints so well the downward spiral that a marriage can take when not everything is working out fine and either of the partners realize that they have crossed their prime years and have nothing to look forward to but old age and despair that they already see around them everyday.

Not many movies manage to entertain while tackling serious human emotions. But this gem of a movie succeeds in doing this with flying colours. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It gets a bit serious near the two-third mark, but never once loses its pace. It manages to keep it all realistic and finally it wraps up the climax with a happy ending, leaving the viewer with a nice feel-good glow as the end credits roll out.

The direction is superb. So is the cinematography. All actors have played their parts very well. Michael Caine of course plays the part of the Magnificent Clarence to perfection. I also liked the acting of Bill Milner who played the part of Edward and Anne-Marie Duff who played the part of his mother, very much...

Its one of those few rare movies that one can watch again and again without getting bored by it. I enjoyed it a lot. And hope you do too...

My Rating: 3.5

Sleuth [1972] (English): Expect the unexpected

The movie starts with a young fellow approaching a stately manor-like home in the country-side. As he approaches the house, he hears a voice floating his way from the gardens. Assuming that the voice probably belongs to the owner of the house, he tries to find its source through the green foliage. But he is in for a surprise. For what looks like mere green foliage is actually a Garden maze. And the owner of the house is sitting right in the middle of it, narrating a story and recording it... The owner is Andrew Wyke, a middle-aged, wealthy and famous detective fiction writer. The young man is Milo Tindle, a self-made hair-dresser, who has been invited by Andrew Wyke for a little chat. Milo is also the guy having an affair with Andrew's wife. Andrew knows about this. And makes no effort to hide the fact. On the contrary, it is about the same topic that Andrew wishes to discuss with young Milo... But not all is as it seems...

This is how the movie starts... And one would never guess the many twists and turns it takes, navigating through plots and sub-plots, before this roller-coaster ride finishes off, leaving the audience dazed and enthralled.

As the name suggests this movie is a detective / mystery story. But don't be fooled by the name. You may not encounter a sleuth in the movie for at least the first half. And when a sleuth does appear on the scene, he is not your traditional arm-chair detective, but your regular police investigator.

The story is extremely well-crafted. Its quite a lengthy movie - 2 hours 18 minutes long. And there are at least two instances during this lengthy movie, that one might feel that now the story would end indeed. But it doesn't. In spite of it being so lengthy, it hardly ever looses pace or gets boring or tedious. It is like a nicely wound machine, ticking away like clockwork, precisely delivering surprise after surprise at regular intervals... There are instances where, if you stop to think, you are bound to find some holes in the plot. But seriously, if you let it catch you by the collar and drag you along with it, you will never really stop to think...

The wisecracking exchanges between Milo and Andrew during the first half of the movie are so witty and interesting, that the viewers are hooked within the first few minutes. It is surprising how the script manages to build the characters and convey so much through spoken dialogue alone. Sometimes the dialogue does appear a bit awkward, unnecessary or out-of-place, but the viewer is usually too engrossed in the movie to notice it.

The characters are quite well-sketched, not only of Milo and Andrew who are present in front of us, but also of certain other characters like Andrew's wife Marguerite, who never really appears in person, throughout the movie, and yet we get to know her quite well through the dialogues, thanks to the well-crafted script. Especially the characters of both Milo - an ambitious and self-made man, and Andrew - an egotistic, prejudiced, old-fashioned, pompous, sometimes immature rich guy are very well-portrayed.

The performance is brilliant. Both by Laurence Olivier who plays Andrew Wyke and by Michael Caine who plays the role of Milo Tindle. At first I thought Michael Caine's acting was a bit amateurish. But by the time the movie ends, we are presented with his formidable acting skills, which may seem to overshadow even the brilliant performance by Laurence Olivier himself.

Attention is given to the finest details in the movie. The sets and the props are very intricately designed - right from the portrayal of the garden maze, to the various games and "Automata" ("and they all work" as Andrew Wyke proudly says) peppered around Andrew Wyke's house. The detailed set of the house and various props in it serve well to define certain aspects of Andrew Wyke's character as a person who loves games-playing.

This is one brilliant gem of a movie that I am sure to enjoy watching many more times. For though the plot will lose its surprises and twists after the first viewing, the movie will never lose its entertainment value for me, thanks to the refreshing performances, the eye-candy of the detailed sets and the witty and entertaining dialogues that made it a memorable flick indeed...

My Ratings: 3.5

Exam [2009] (English) - an intricate puzzle and a psychological thriller

8 candidates prepare for the final round of an extremely lucrative job opportunity. The recruitment is supposed to be for a very high post in a very big company. An opportunity worth dying for. An opportunity worth killing for.

The exam hall is a single closed room, with no windows, a single door, a guard besides it, 8 desks and chairs and 8 question papers, one for each candidate. The invigilator sets forth a set of rules: they cannot communicate with the guard or the invigilator at any time. They cannot leave the room for any reason. And they should not spoil their own question paper. There is one question. And one answer is required. The invigilator starts a timer. They have 80 minutes to give the correct answer. Then the invigilator leaves the room. Each candidate opens the question paper. Each of the paper is blank...

So starts the quest for the question. And the correct answer. At first its a very intriguing puzzle. But as the time begins to run out, the pressure increases. Which candidates will snap under pressure? Which ones will manage to find the right answer? What is the right answer? But before that, what is the question? This is what forms the heart of the movie. This is what fuels it, grabs the audience by the collar and hardly ever lets go...

What I liked about this movie was its entirely original premise. The idea is unique. Who would have thought of making a movie based on a recruitment process for a big job opportunity? It thankfully refrains from using the age old spices of love, action, romance, murder, etc. Which makes it a refreshing watch. There is mystery and suspense. Its a puzzler, which reminds me of movies like Cube and Fermat's Room. Just like the Cube, it not only entertains by making the audience use their grey cells as they get absorbed in the puzzle, but also explores the human psyche.

Somewhere in between the movie seems to veer off from the path that one might have expects. For, it starts off as an intriguing and intricate puzzle and then turns into a psychological thriller where it explores the impact of pressure on human psyche. How a situation of stress and pressure can bring out the best or the worst in people. And how some people would go to any lengths when the stakes are high enough for them.

And the climax comes with a twist that you would never have anticipated. Some of the ideas in the movie, like how each of the candidates came to know about the job opening, may sound a bit half-baked. And some of them, for example the explanations at the end, may sound a bit far fetched and fantastic. And yet it manages to keep it all as realistic as possible, refraining from taking unnecessary leaps of fantasy.

The movie is a single room drama, where the entire story takes place within a single room. Which shows the talent of the co-writer and director Stuart Hazeldine, to be able to make the entire story work within such a limited location / set.

The camera work is pretty impressive too. Many aspects of the story are narrated very well by intuitive visuals. It exemplifies the rule that visuals can express better and are more powerful than words.

The acting ranges from very good to mediocre. I especially liked the acting of the candidates who are referred to as "white", and "dark" in the movie.

The characters are neither too shallow, nor too intricately sketched. But each character's personality is portrayed with enough details to fit the requirements of the story.

The movie will not afford you easy entertainment. It will demand your brain power. It will make you think. If you don't mind that, then its certainly worth watching at least once.

My Ratings: 3.5