Platicsco
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Comwayon
A Disappointing Continuation
Portia Hilton
Blistering performances.
socrates99
An unusual film about a healer and what it cost her to be one, set in Canada's far north. The three adult principals are flawless. The two child actors are flawless too. If nothing else it's worth seeing these performances which should impress even the most hard-hearted of critics.The story itself is rather slight. A woman is recognized as having the gift by another healer but her own family problems might not withstand her acceptance of her gift. Aside from that it's about relationships between a mother and her two sons, and perhaps also about a loving mother trying to live mostly through her emotions.The real value of the film is how it seems to represent a breakthrough for all of the actors involved. Cillian Murphy, Jennifer Connelly, and Melanie Laurent are all unforgettably good. The two McGrath brothers are irreplaceable.
estella_ema
i just finished watching the movie.. Didn't know anything about it before...Didn't know what it was about about! i just knew the actors!in the beginning i couldn't understand what it was about.. i just felt sorrow for that pour mothers dream and hope to save her son! By the middle of the film all my emotion when to the boy the guilt he must have felt and the courage to say what he believed! he didn't want to believe that his mother could heal because if she did then his brother would have lived and the accident would have been more harmful for him! Like a strong boy that he was ...he coped with the loss his own way...as his mother did! who is to blame more ! i am not a mama so for sure i would say the mother...But all this emotion the movie gave me..it was worth the while to see the movie! Not for everyone of course!! but if you are looking to open up your mind in a other way of thinking..perhaps you don't understand..but i enjoyed it!! As the ending left us sort not knowing if the girl was saved or not.. probably both ways hurt! For me...she got saved and the boy forgave his mom and himself for the accident! He was always strong...
Justin-354-218379
An hour and a half into the movie and I am still not entirely sure what is happening. Seriously what the heck am I watching? Terrible movie. Jumps back and forth between the past and future at unrelated points in the story. Dialog is boring. Hard to follow what is going on. Character development is non-existent. The mother discovers she is a mystic healer. The son keeps and trains and keeps predator birds (falcons specifically). The execution of the premise is even more weird and poorly executed than it sounds. This is a really poorly developed story that never should have been made into a movie. Through its entirety the viewer is subjected to bad writing (no range in vocabulary) with a plot that never really happens. The attempt is to masquerade as some deep art piece. It fails. Film was just a crap indie film or a B-Role movie intended to go straight to RedBox. And even it that low bar to shoot for, if the directors hadn't scored Jennifer Connelly in the lead role it wouldn't have even attracted viewership in that subprime outlet. This movie totally relies on viewer recognizing the star on the DVD cover to entice giving the movie a chance. Its not worth the buck you feed into a Redbox machine to rent it. AVOID and spend the hour and a half of your like doing something more worthwhile like try watching paint dry.
meganbeneski
I was anxiously awaiting the release of Aloft in the US because I really enjoy the work of the two lead actors, Jennifer Connelly and Cillian Murphy. The film was in competition at the Berlin Film Festival last year so, there were plenty of reviews out there for me to read beforehand. I finally had a chance to watch it and in my opinion the critics missed the point of this film. They were in search of obvious plot points and cleanly presented character arcs. But, there is none of that. It is a melancholy film to be sure. The characters are existing in an environment lacking love, levity, hope and basic comfort (beautifully realized by the bleak environment of the frozen wilds of Canada.) Jennifer Connelly's character, Nana, is a single mother raising two boys; Gully who is terminally ill and Ivan who is woefully unloved and overlooked. Nana is not a sympathetic character in the least. She sees her circumstances as permission to inflict whatever poor choices she wishes on those around her and her choices run the gamete of self-indulgent to self- destructive. When she chooses to leave Ivan her rationalizations are flimsy and cruel and really only a justification for her to "get out" and put herself first. Cillian Murphy is subtly enthralling as a grown up Ivan. Raised in an environment of very little joy Ivan progresses from an unhappy, sullen boy into a short-tempered, hermit of a man that seethes with anger and distrust. There are moments throughout the film that show Ivan's vulnerability and capacity for sweetness. Like when he is training his beloved falcon or playing with his own son. But, he is damaged and guarded. The result of being unloved and discarded. The story is told in two separate timelines approximately 20 years apart and flashbacks help fill in the story of the boys before they are separated from their mother. Details are few and the circumstances of what caused the rift between Nana and Ivan are not fully realized until the end. I do feel like the depiction of the characters, flawed as they are, was realistic. Their choices were selfish, rooted in anger and hurt. But, it is a picture of the pain of physical and emotional abandonment and ultimately survivor's guilt. It shows that the choices that we make profoundly affect those around us and those ripples can be felt for a lifetime. There are no happy endings or neatly defined explanations for why people do what they do to the people that they love, this film depicts that ambiguity in a lovely way.
