Is Anybody There? Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
Set in 1980s seaside England, ten-year-old Edward's parents have turned their
house into a
retirement home. While his mother struggles to keep the family business afloat and
his father
copes with the onset of a mid-life crisis, Edward becomes increasingly obsessed with
the ghosts
and afterlives of the residents when they die. Edward's is a lonely existence until he
meets
Clarence, the latest arrival at the home, a retired magician and grieving widower who
refuses
to give in gracefully to old age. Their relationship begins at odds until Clarence
notices that the
boy is growing up even more fitfully than he is growing old. As they begin to face life
together,
Clarence comes to terms with his past, Edward tames his obsession with the
unknown and they
are both reminded of what magic is possible when life is lived to its fullest.
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.
Edward and The Amazing Clarence
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Magnolia Home Entertainment has announced that they will bring 'Is Anybody There?' to Blu-ray on November 17th, day-and-date with the DVD release. Technical specs for this Michael Caine film have not been announced at this time, though you can expect a VC-1 video ...
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