Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

NateWatchesCoolMovies "Let us go then, you and I, I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown." This excerpt from the poem 'The Love Of J. Alfred Prufrock' by Eliot is our theme for a film called Till Human Voices wake us, a film I've owned on DVD for almost two years and only got around to watching last night. I have a whole gigantic stack of films that number in the hundreds which I still have to conquer. Some are dodgy movies and risky looking indie muck that I picked up because they have an actor or actress I really love. Some end up being absolute gems that I wish I got around to far, far sooner. This is one of those. It's such a beautiful story, an atmospheric, airy glance into grief, regret, life after death, guilt and redemption. It stars Guy Pearce as Sam, an emotionally constrained professor of psychology who travels back to his town of origin in eerie, ambient Australia to bury his recently deceased father. The very moment he arrives he is flooded with memories both glad and sad, permeated deep to his core by a past that he perhaps purposefully numbed over with time and tide, revisiting the lost events of a youth painted by wonder and first love, and tainted by aching tragedy. We see in flashbacks his younger self (Lindley Joiner) barely a teenager in the lonely rural outback. He spent his days back then with his beautiful friend Sylvie (Brooke Harmon), and the two fall deeply, sublimely in love in that affectionate way that only two youngsters who are both experiencing it for the first time can profess. Tragedy strikes though, resulting in Sylvie's death and Sam's withdrawal from his life in the that town, and eventual flight from Australia, not to return until over a decade later, much older yet still plagued by the loss. Upon returning, he meets a mysterious girl named Ruby (Helena Bonham Carter) who he saves from jumping off a bridge. All she can remember is her name. Nothing else like who she is or what she was doing up there. Sam takes her in and tries to help her figure out who she is, and perhaps unbeknownst to him, who he is these days as well. Together they meander through meadows memories, exploring each other's thoughts, perceptions and feelings, gradually coming to some third act revelations that really shouldn't come as a surprise to any viewer with an ounce of intuition. The surprise comes not in being taken off guard by plot turns, because I certainly wasn't. No, the film never sets out to try and surprise you, and guessing what's going on before any reveal I suspect was part of its plan. What it floored me with, though, is the level of emotion and heights of pure crestfallen sadness that we need to sit through. I say need because this is a film about coming to terms with ones own past, hard parts and all. Sam has bottled up the loss of Sylvie for quite some time, and his character arc lets it all tumble out in some scenes that hit hard. It's never ugly or despairing though, and gracefully makes itself only as sorrowful as it needs to be. Pearce and Carter are painfully good in the leads, quietly devastating work for both. It's Harmon and Joiner who complete the song as young Sylvie and young Sam though, two young actors who are uncommonly good on camera and vastly skilled at imparting the raw, reckless and romantic nature of youth, particularly discovering love for the first time, and subsequently losing it in heartbreak that strikes far too soon, like an early summer storm. This is one I'm imagining not too many people have heard of, and one I might have gone a few more years without seeing if I hadn't randomly decided to watch it last night. I'm glad I did, and you should too.

LadyBeth10 I just came across this film on The Movie Channel this morning. I'm home sick in bed, and there's not much else to do. Wow, am I glad I did. I don't know what other movies this writer/director has made, but believe me, I will look them up. I've only read other user reviews, and if the critics panned it, then I don't care to read theirs. Sometimes films that are not easily categorizable, get lost in the modern film market. Whether it is a ghost story, or a psychological gestalt is left up to the viewer's interpretation. I rarely come on here to post, but this film compelled me to do so. This film brought me to tears, both happy and sad. Like a beautiful poem, it unfolds slowly and heartbreakingly. The writing, direction, acting, cinematography, and score are excellent. I'm so glad I DVR'd it, because I'm watching it again. It does remind one of Bergman and some of Kurosawa's more personal films in it's intimate construction. But this filmmaker stands on his own. It haunts you and is absolutely unforgettable.

robert-temple-1 This is a magnificent triumph of film-making. Why is it that five years later, the writer and director Michael Petroni has not made another feature film? Is there no justice at all in the world? Everything about this film, the mood, the pace, the beautiful and sensitive cinematography, the music, the writing, the direction, and the acting are uniformly superb. No one with any sensitivity could fail to be moved by this dreamlike excursion into memory, remorse, and loss. This film deals with 'atonement' more profoundly than the film of that title which has just been made. Helena Bonham Carter gives one of the most memorable and inspired performances of her entire career in this film. Guy Pearce, who was so wonderful in 'Memento' (2000), here is even better. The teenaged boy and girl are played by Lindley Joyner and Brooke Harmon respectively, and they are spellbinding and delightfully refreshing and charming. (The boy has never made a film since, and one wonders why.) The boy's father, a man paralyzed in his emotions, is played with total conviction by Peter Curtin. His silence is eloquent, and so is Guy Pearce's. This film deals with silence, with dreaming, with visions, with memory. It is not in any way a 'supernatural film' in the conventional sense, and anyone hungry for poltergeists and demons should look elsewhere. This film is very sad, because it deals so profoundly with guilt and loss. It touches the deepest reaches of our psyches, it is a true work of art, and has a master's brush strokes on every frame.

andyslade Tiring, difficult to follow, arduous, unappealing. OK, so I missed the first few minutes but I think that was quite a good idea. It tries hard to be a somewhat arty presentation, but ends up being a collection of some nice cinematographic moments, spoiled by what I can best describe as unusual and overcooked acting and a laboured script in parts. In short, I'd give it a miss unless you want to bore yourself for an hour or two.Tiring, difficult to follow, arduous, unappealing. OK, so I missed the first few minutes but I think that was quite a good idea. It tries hard to be a somewhat arty presentation, but ends up being a collection of some nice cinematographic moments, spoiled by what I can best describe as unusual and overcooked acting and a laboured script in parts. In short, I'd give it a miss unless you want to bore yourself for an hour or two.