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Is Anybody There? Blu-ray
Magnolia Pictures | 2008 | 95 mins | Rated PG-13 | Nov 17, 2009
Is Anybody There? Blu-ray Review“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”Reviewed by Casey Broadwater, November 14, 2009 Back when I was in high school, I volunteered a few times at a nursing home to chat with the residents and call bingo numbers ("B-9, your tumor is B-9."). I'm not going to lie and say it was a life-changing experience—this wasn't exactly Tuesdays With Morrie—but after meeting several WWII veterans and a woman who showed me a medal she received directly from the pope, I did come away with the newfound belief that everyone has a story to tell. Most films about the elderly deal, in some way, with the unbearable sadness of memory, of stories aching not to be forgotten. But as anyone who has seen The Notebook can attest—well, not anyone, there is a contingent readily in love with Nicholas Sparks—this theme can easily get caught up in wistful longing and stuck in sloppy sentiment. Fortunately, Is Anybody There? mostly— mostly—skirts the weepy mire of mawkishness and delivers a double-sided coming of age tale that's tender and involving.
It's the mid-1980s, and ten-year-old Edward (Son of Rambow's Bill Milner) lives in the attic of Lark Hill, a nursing home owned by his quarrelsome parents (Anne-Marie Duff and David Morrissey), who never seem to have time for him—or one another. While his mum tends to the menagerie of patients, his dad does repairs and makes lusty eyes at the teenage help. Left to his own devices, Edward becomes obsessed with ghosts, even carrying around a cassette recorder so he can tape the last breaths of dying residents. Yes, it's more than a little morbid, but Edward's underlying motivation is to make sure that "it can't just be black," as he's afraid the nothingness of the afterlife might be. He wants empirical proof—a ghostly whisper, an acknowledgement from beyond the grave—that something of our selves survives when we shed the mortal coil. Edward is dragged into the land of the living when he's befriended—begrudgingly at first—by The Amazing Clarence (Michael Caine), a retired magician and suicidal widower who has recently moved into the home. The two basically spend all their waking hours together—Edward out of endless curiosity and Clarence because he sees the rest of Lark Hill's inhabitants as "a lot of jabbering simpletons, sitting around wetting themselves." Clarence isn't immune to the onset of old age, however, and after a mash-up on a roundabout and a magic show gone dreadfully awry, it's clear that the debilitating effects of Alzheimer's have set in. Director John Crowley (Boy A, Intermission) gets the odd-couple relationship between Edward and Clarence right. Both characters are coming of age, in a sense. Edward plows awkwardly through the first furrows of adolescence, while Clarence is struggling to accept his own mortality and let go of the accumulated regrets that stick to him "like old bruises." Naturally, the two have a lot to teach one another, but any didacticism is overshadowed by the painful transitions both characters are experiencing. The film nails that feeling of being a kid who, on one hand, goes completely unheard by his parents, and on the other, doesn't fully understand the pressures of an adult world filled with bills and financial failure and infidelity. Likewise, the script deals with Clarence's loosening grip on reality with candor, even if the process seems more sudden than it might be in real life. And both actors are up for the challenge. Michael Caine manages the transformation from cranky old curmudgeon to senile senior with characteristic grace. Some have made the claim that he plays the same character in every performance— whether it's a gangster or a grandpa or Batman's butler—but Caine's personality is almost perfectly malleable, able to fill the shape of his varied roles like water being poured into a container. I was also impressed by Bill Milner, who dodges most child actor pitfalls by seeming genuine and not overly actor-ish, even when he has to play wide-eyed or angry. The film falters a bit, however, when it comes to the supporting characters and subplots. I'll admit, it's difficult to make a film about 1.) a mental asylum or 2.) old people without resorting to cliché. The geriatrics who inhabit Lark Hill are unfortunately single-note stereotypes. We have the aging lecher who recites dirty limericks, the willowy old dame who just wants to put on her dancing shoes one last time, the veteran who runs around naked wearing nothing but his army cap, etc., none of which have much to do but look surprised by Edward's antics and provide a general atmosphere of non-stop insanity. They're interesting, but wholly inconsequential. The climax—which involves Edward taking Clarence, by bus and then train, to visit the grave of Clarence's estranged wife—does seem farfetched. How does Edward know where to go? I'm not sure, at ten years old, that I would have the mental wherewithal to plan out a multi-hour journey to a place I'd never been before. That said, the dénouement is pitch-perfect. It may seem formulaic and perhaps overly optimistic, but I'll confess to cracking a giant grin as, for the briefest of moments, the world's wrongs right themselves. Video  Is Anybody There? finds a home on Blu-ray with a luscious 1080p/VC-1 encoded transfer that accurately represents the film's moody, nostalgic and beautifully toned cinematography. The mid-1980s setting is enhanced by the use of a film stock and color timing that, in many of the outdoor scenes at least, seems to emulate the look of vintage slide photography, with creamy colors and highlights that are nudged slightly off-white. Sky blues are dreamy and soft, the cemetery lawn is a lively green, and director John Crowley occasionally uses backlighting to magnificent effect, casting a halo of sunlight around Edward as he walks through an autumn afternoon filled with airborne motes of dust. The palette for interiors is subtler—this is a nursing home, after all—but the neutral tones give way to splashes of color, like pastel party hats, bright balloons, and deep crimson curtains. The film's grain structure is very fine—from a normal viewing distance it's only apparent in the darkest scenes—and overall clarity is excellent. The director frequently uses shallow depth of field to blur backgrounds, but the in-focus portions of the frame are nearly always sharp, clearly rendering Michael Caine's prickly stubble and the fine threading of Edward's sweaters. The film's presence is aided by nicely balanced contrast and black levels that are suitably deep. The séance scene in the basement is a little too dark, but the crush here seems intentional. Finally, I didn't spot any digital anomalies or compression issues. Audio To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from the film's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. My mental reasoning went something like this: it's a low-key drama set in a nursing home, so the audio is probably front-heavy and uninvolving. I was surprised, then, to find a track that is admittedly quiet, but very subtle and immersive thanks to some excellent sound design. During nearly every scene inside the nursing home we're aware of the other residents going about their business. For example, if we're watching Clarence and Edward talk in Clarence's room, we can hear the sound of distant TV chatter elsewhere in the house. We hear footfalls, muffled conversations, a dim clamor. This does a lot to convince us that we're in a real place. The rear channels are almost constantly engaged with some kind of ambience; birds chirp, a ghostly wind passes through, and there are even a few discrete effects, like when cars on the highway pass deftly between channels. The sound effects are surprisingly detailed. When Clarence lights up a cigarette we hear the click of the lighter, the sudden whoosh as the tip of the cigarette ignites, and the crackly crinkling as the paper begins to burn. When Edward listens through his headphones to an old man's dying breaths, the effect is chilling. And the mock séance that Clarence puts on is filled with loud ghostly rappings. Everything sounds full and clean and properly oriented. Joby Talbot's unconventional score is also outstanding, with plucked violin strings, chiming bells, and what sounds like a musical saw or a theremin. While almost all of the dialogue is perfectly prioritized and easily understood, a few of Michael Caine's lines sound slightly muffled, mostly due to his low and vowel-heavy voice. Other than that, I had no real issues with this convincing and detailed track. Supplements  Deleted Scenes (SD, 7:08) No commentary, no making-of documentary, not even an EPK featurette. Unfortunately, this disc ships with only a handful of deleted scenes—which are worth watching, by the way, and not just your standard throwaway snippets. Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment Blu-ray (1080p, 9:26) Includes a promo for HDNet and high definition trailers for The Great Buck Howard, World's Greatest Dad, Food, Inc., and The Answer Man. Final words  It's all too easy to exploit the elderly for unseemly gags about forgetfulness and loss of motor control, but Is Anybody There? rarely plays Clarence's nascent senility for laughs, choosing to focus instead on the sorrow that accompanies debilitation. The story is tender but never maudlin, thanks to some brutally honest acting from Michael Caine. Adding to the package is a strong audio/video presentation with gorgeous cinematography and detailed sound design. These kinds of films are always divisive though—some people hate 'em, others cry real tears—so unless you're a Michael Caine completist, I'd suggest you try a rental before you buy. 
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