Michael Caine excels in this tale of grieving and mortality, writes MICHAEL DWYER
WHAT A drag it is getting old, as Mick Jagger observed in the 1964 Rolling Stones song Mother's Little Helper. Jagger was 22 then and probably still sings that refrain on the concert circuit now that he's 65. Most of the characters in Intermission director John Crowley's new film are even older, being residents of a retirement home at an English seaside town in the late 1980s.
Is Anybody There?observes the retirees through the curious eyes of 10-year-old Edward (Bill Milner from Son of Rambow), the only child of the owners (Anne-Marie Duff and David Morrissey). Edward, who has no friends his own age, has developed a morbid interest in the supernatural and afterlife, and he follows the residents with a tape recorder in the hope of capturing their last breaths. His mother admonishes him, reminding him that "they're real people, they're not toys".
Edward reluctantly surrenders his bedroom to a new arrival, a retired magician (Michael Caine) who performed as Clarence, Master of Illusion. Clarence is just as resistant to being sent to the home by the social services, and he insists that his stay is temporary. Still grieving after the death of his beloved wife, he resents his slide into senility and loss of self-sufficiency.
The screenplay by Peter Harness, who drew on his own memories of growing up in a retirement home run by his parents, adopts a familiar odd- couple set-up for the rapport gradually formed between Clarence and Edward as it dissolves from initial antagonism into a warm, close bond.
Their relationship recalls the line in William Wordsworth's poem, My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold: "The child is the father of the man" – not only in its observation of how adults are shaped by childhood experiences, but in how Edward has to take on responsibility for caring for Clarence as he becomes less capable of caring for himself. At the same time, Clarence encourages Edward to communicate more with the living.
This affecting, melancholy movie adeptly avoids the easy pitfalls of patronising or sentimentalising the many older people who populate it, opting instead to celebrate their long lives as they draw to an end.
The disparate personalities are played with wit and dignity by a splendid ensemble cast of veterans who succinctly establish their characters. Among them is the redoubtable Elizabeth Spriggs, who died since the film was made.
The chemistry between Caine and Milner is appealing, and essential to the movie’s emotional hold so adroitly exerted by director Crowley, who reaffirms his skill at eliciting revealing but unshowy performances from his actors.
Caine gives one of the finest performances of his remarkably varied career, allowing himself to play a man closer in age to himself (76) and imbuing the lonely magician with a sensitivity and vulnerability rarely found in his performances.
