No Ordinary Fool

The word is that Michael Caine’s wife became distressed at some point during her first viewing of this portrayal of a broken and cantankerous old man who is slowly losing his marbles. If it is the moment that I think it is, let me just say that it is probably the best few seconds of cinema that I have seen in a long time. Caine absolutely nails it in that instant and you find yourself amazed all over again by this great actor.

If Clint Eastwood’s Walt in Gran Torino was Harry Callahan having acquired the capacity to feel empathy in his old age, then this film is surely the heartless vengeance that Fate always had in store for Alfie and his caddish ways. Disappointment, disenchantment, despair, and desperation drench their way through this film of ordinary people struggling to find any meaning or value in their lives.

Set in a small retirement home that is located along a dismal stretch of England’s eastern coastline, old people are reduced to sitting around for Death to come a knocking, while the middle-aged couple who care for them are struggling to make ends meet. The husband (David Morrissey) is equally wondering if this is all that life has in store for him. When retired travelling magician Clarence (Michael Caine) arrives, his first reaction is to bolt. However, persuaded to stay by a simple yet touching gesture of humanity by Anne-Marie Duff’s character, his presence ends up doing a little to the home that McMurphy’s, once upon a time, did so destructively to the psychiatric ward that he was on.

If all of this sounds rather gloomy and of questionable entertainment value, the film does have another side to it completely. This comes in the form of 10 year-old Edward (Bill Milner), looking and acting much as Milner’s character did in Son of Rambow (right down to the dodgy spelling ability, in fact). Fascinated by both death and ghosts and struggling to make friends his own age, he forms one of cinema’s beloved “odd couple” relationships with Clarence. Herein, his innocence and childish sense of being unfairly treated by his parents bring plenty of humour, as well as a fresh perspective to the themes of ageing and dying.

That said, I had a couple of problems with John Crowley’s film. Firstly, I was not sure whose viewpoint that I was supposed to be viewing it from. At times, painfully serious and, at others, lightheartedly amusing (even if the aren’t-old-people-funny-because-they’re-gaga gags aspired to mediocrity only), there was a confusion in tone that loosened the links between scenes. Secondly, the decision to give each plotline its own ending made the denouement too drawn out to be satisfactorily dramatic.

Is Anybody There? may not be the devastating cinematic embodiment of Dylan Thomas’ famous poem that I would love to see an actor of Caine’s calibre deliver. However, it does offer several moments of magic that I adored. Indeed, I was quite annoyed by some critic or other saying that this was a film that would appeal more to older people. Its themes are universal and entirely worth watching, all you young hipsters that love to congregate here!