Freaktana A Major Disappointment

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

David Holt (rawiri42) Oranges and Sunshine is listed as a drama on IMDb but surely it should also be listed as a biography. In fact, as my summary suggests, this movie can hardly be described as "entertainment." It is excellent viewing that will shock those viewers who have led comfortable, sheltered lives in the bosoms of their loving families. They will certainly be educated but entertained...No!One has to presume that Emma Watson spent time with her character Margaret Humphreys before shooting began and so to criticise her performance as "lack lustre" or (as one reviewer uncharitably put it) "like a corpse" is hardly justified since I would prefer to think that, as a true professional, she played her part with accuracy. That is, by the way, NOT to say that Margaret Humphreys was lacking in dedication. She obviously had a very difficult job at the time and, when her superior at Nottingham Social Welfare told her that she could have twice the time she asked for to address a problem that, until Margaret uncovered it, hardly anyone even knew about, her mild but obviously thankful expression spoke volumes. And that, Carronna, is what acting is all about!!As Len (David Wenham) told Margaret, she could never really know the full story because she hadn't been a part of it. Yet it was very obvious to me that the real Margaret Humphries had an innate empathetic understanding of what she was dealing with and Emma Watson portrayed that with delicate poise. Also, Margaret's husband Merv (Richard Dillane) must have been not only very much in love with his wife but also trusted her absolutely implicitly knowing that she was on the other side of the world working with men who had been devastated (and were understandably thus highly dependent). Not once did he question her loyalty to their marriage but, rather, was as supportive as he could possibly have been. I hope it won't be deemed a "spoiler" but, near the end of the movie, when Margaret's young son was asked what he was going to give everyone for Christmas and simply answered, "My Mum" I couldn't stop the tears.Interestingly, just a couple of weeks before seeing Oranges and Sunshine, I watched a Sunday Night TV documentary item about the abuses suffered at a Queensaland Christian Brothers' Boystown institution which has started an inquiry into what went on there. And the abused men in Oranges and Sunshine were exactly like those interviewed in the documentary - and THAT was scary! Those filth masquerading as Christians should, in my uncharitable opinion, be scourged just like Jesus was as portrayed in Mel Gibson's Psssion Of The Christ - and that would be too good for them! What is worse, it is NOT "history" - it still happens! Actually, I'm amazed that the powerful Roman Catholic Church didn't mange to get this movie squashed!I have said this about a number of movies in the past and I say it again about Oranges and Sunshine - it should be compulsory viewing for all bureaucrats and Catholics and recommended for everyone else!

suspira-483-995391 I would be lying if I said I didn't want this film to be better. It's not a piece of high drama by any stretch but it IS a slow burn of a film which highlights the stupidity and boorishness of government agencies when they've done something wrong and don't want to accept any responsibility to what happened to those in their care. When it comes down to individuals having to work on their own to get the information these displaced people so desperately need, SOMETHING is wrong. The film is not a far stretch from reality, having personally experienced this for myself.I was wondering if they'd address the sexual abuse suffered by the children within the system, as well as the physical toil they dealt with. I am glad to see that this was treated with sensitivity and WITHOUT fanfare. Fortunately it is barely mentioned aside from the last 10 or so minutes of the film. There is more than enough of that going on in recent world happenings anyway.Don't even get me started on the Christian Brothers anyway... that part of the film brought tears to my eyes as it reminded me very much of the tales my own father - also a ward of the state with the rest of his siblings and under the Christian Brothers' care in the 60s and 70s - told me. Frankly, the less said about that organisation of kiddy fiddlers and abusers, the better.Hugo Weaving is a minor character in this film but he's no less captivating as a broken man who has suffered from the loss of his identity. Indeed, even David Wenham portrays a victim of abuse in sheer, angry denial perfectly.Unfortunately Emily Watson's character does not carry much weight which is disappointing as she is the main focus of the film rather than the deported (or "Lost") children. Much of her dialogue is stale and it's the actors around her that pull the movie together. The scripting is very weak at times, however if you can put up with that, it's a film well worth watching.I can't say I enjoyed it because I am very close to it's subject matter but it was a worthy telling of a tragic mishandling of the lives of children of our past.

gradyharp It is always a jolt when a bit of buried history surfaces and makes us realize that the world is not all that sane as we would like to believe: the Chaos Factor raises its ugly head as in this screen adaptation by Rona Munro of Margaret Humphreys' true story book 'Empty Cradles'. This is a very powerful film, all the more so because of the quality of acting and direction by Jim Loach who never lets the film run out of control despite the unveiling tragedy.The story is set in the 1980s where Nottingham, social worker Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson) is a social worker who encounters a middle aged woman who has traveled form Australia to find her birth parents. Margaret at first doesn't want to increase her workload with a wild tale of children having been deported form England by ship to be placed in orphanage work camps in Australia, but with the aid of her supportive husband Merv (Richard Dillane) she begins to investigate the uncovered secret, ultimately traveling to Australia where she meets the 'unwanted children' as adults each longing to return to the UK to meet their families. The children when deported were as young as four to thirteen years old and had been told their parents either were dead or didn't want them and the representatives from the government promised them a safe home with 'oranges and sunshine' in Australia. There are several 'victims' as played by Hugo Weaving, David Wenham, Russell Dykstra and others who help personalize the unspoken crime until Margaret progresses to the point where she can hold the British government accountable for child migration schemes and reunite the children involved -- now adults living mostly in Australia -- with their parents in Britain. Though the deportations occurred from the 1940's through the 1970's it was only after Margaret Humphrey's 1994 book and then much later after when February 2010 Great Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally issued a full apology to those deported children and their families.The supporting cast is uniformly excellent but it is the glowing performance by Emily Watson that makes this revelation of a film remain in the mind long after the credits explain how the solution played out in reality. This is a tough film but an important one and deserves a much larger audience than it has found. Grady Harp

diego-scarazzati First, i want to say that i found the film slow. In fact, i had the feeling that nothing happened during the whole movie, or almost. There wasn't any poignant scene except when a man wanted to kill her or whatever. It was extremely sad, slow and murky so i've nodded of for a while. I think the film maker did not give us poignant and powerful moments. Furthermore, i think the story of the film is very interesting : thousands of children stolen from England to Australia, the secret identity of their families, distress, the truth distorted by the British government, and so on... But i think a few aspects were sloppy and that's why i didn't find "Oranges and Sunshine" top-notch. But all the film wasn't bad, on one hand the cast was good and the lead role of Margaret Humphreys was the perfect for Emily Watson, in fact the acting is enjoyable. On the other hand, i think it was not emotional and explosive enough. All in all, you can go out and watch the film if you have some time to lose.