Is Anybody There?

Aroview: Gentle, tearjerking drama set in an old folks home, where Michael Caine plays a retired magician who forms an unlikely bond with the curious son of the proprietors.

It is this sweet partnership that is the beating heart of the film, the potential sentimentality held at bay by an angry, heartbroken Caine and a morbidly obsessive young Milner (of SON OF RAMBOW fame). The rest of the retirees, played by numerous Brit stage veterans, provide refreshing, if rather hammy, comic-relief.