Is Anybody There? (2008/Magnolia DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C
Michael
Caine is good at playing downbeat and down on his luck, but no matter how good
his performance is, it cannot help John Crowley’s somewhat ambitious drama Is Anybody There? (2008)
work. Besides Caine repeating himself
(he is a magician, he is homeless, he is angry, he has nobody, he is wise, he
knows he is at his life’s end, etc.) he meets a young boy (Bill Milner) who he
does not like at first, but…
You can
see how you have seen this film before and Crowley, who also directed the
celebrated Boy A (2007) does try to
make this work as a warm tale of real magic versus mere tricks, but that now
common Spielbergian theme does not mix well at all with the realism attempted
here. Peter Harness’ script is not
awful, but offers nothing new and the result is barely able to fill 94 minutes
without being dull. David Morrissey,
Peter Vaughan and Elizabeth Spriggs (in her last role) also star.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is shockingly weak, even for a Super
35mm production (even on Fuji 35mm film) with bad detail, very weak Video Black
and a color-challenged look that has as much to do with the transfer as
anything else. A Blu-ray was also
issued, but we did not get it in time for this posting. The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo mixes are
about the same as this is a low-budget film with limited soundfield and is
dialogue-based. Joby Talbot’s score is
one of the few things engaging the surrounds.
Deleted Scenes are the only extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
