Even Crowley, who seems to have a knack with overloaded material, can't quite bring the thing in for a safe landing in all the slush.
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All of this is at once predictable and implausible -- a two-hander of a story so overplotted and overpopulated that by the time it's winding up, the question isn't so much Is Anybody There? as it is, "Why on earth are so many bodies here?"
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
No one could save Is Anybody There? from its treacly self and Michael Caine doesn't, but he gives it a grand try.
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
More deft than it first appears, director John Crowley's gentle-but-not-sappy drama features another late-day masterpiece-in-miniature from Michael Caine.
All-too-familiar and schmaltzy territory for both coming-of-age films and movies with elderly actors.
The Hollywood Reporter by Michael Rechtshaffen
While Caine and young Milner make for amusing adversaries, it's nice to see Crowley paying respect to his elders by populating the retirement home with a number of familiar faces, including those belonging to Rosemary Harris, Sylvia Syms and longtime "Coronation Street" resident Thelma Barlow.
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
Blending humor and heartbreak in a performance that makes a small movie a richly satisfying one, Caine truly is magic.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
What balances the movie is Mr. Caine's exceptional portrayal of old age as the accumulation of a lifetime's experience. In his performance the child, the youthful rogue and the forgetful codger all live at once.
The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson
The script is always shakier than the performers trying to bring it across, and by the third act, it lets them down completely.