Is Anybody There?

Saturday 2nd May 2009, 2:44PM BST.

Two beautifully judged performances from British actors more than 50 years apart distinguish John Crowley’s surprisingly tenderness coming of age story, set in the fashion black spot of 1987.

Scripted by Peter Harness, who draws inspiration from episodes in his own childhood, Is Anybody There? is a bittersweet portrait of a family slowly coming apart at the seams, as seen through the eyes of a lonely 10-year-old boy.

Themes of death, adultery, grief, Alzheimer’s, isolation and the supernatural are elegantly underscored with earthy humour.

A sleepy British seaside town, starved of colour, provides a suitably drab home for bookish tyke Edward (Bill Milner), who lives in the Lark Hall retirement home run by his parents (Anne-Marie Duff, David Morrissey).

He is left to his own devices, spending long periods with aging charmer Reg (Leslie Phillips), prim kleptomaniac Ena (Thelma Barlow), jittery war veteran Bob (Robert Vaughn) and despairing Lilian (Sylvia Syms).

Edward is fascinated with the afterlife and he secretly records the residents on his cassette player, hoping to capture the moment a soul leaves the body.

The boy’s solitude is interrupted with the arrival of grieving widower Clarence (Sir Michael Caine), a retired magician who doesn’t suffer children gladly.

‘Why are you so bloody morbid?’ barks the old man.

‘Because I live here,’ replies Edward sternly.

At first, the boy and the newcomer clash but a dramatic incident brings them together, forging an unlikely friendship.

Edward persuades Clarence to revive his act one last time at his 11th birthday party and in return, the veteran helps to put the boy’s grievances into perspective.

‘I used to have my own room with Paddington Bear wallpaper,’ laments Edward.

‘And I used to have a beautiful wife and all my own teeth,’ responds Clarence sadly.

As the relationship deepens between two lost souls, they embark on an important quest to confront the ghosts of the past.

Is Anybody There? really shouldn’t work with its disparate themes all jostling for attention and downbeat setting.

However, screenwriter Harness teases out the humour in the grimmest of situations, including a slapstick set piece involving the untimely demise of a resident.

Clarence’s ill-fated magic show is a particular highlight, proving to be a cut above other children’s entertainment as one of Edward’s excited classmates declares: ‘It were extremely wicked!’ Caine delivers a tour de force performance as a one-time showman slipping inexorably into the grasp of Alzheimer’s.

He doesn’t strike a single false emotional note, and is matched sob for sob by the wonderfully expressive Milner, whose attention-seeking youngster is doomed to the scrap heap by one disgruntled resident: ‘Mark my words, by the time he’s 13 he’ll be sniffing glue out of a plastic bag!’ Supporting performances invigorate even the smallest of roles, eliciting as many laughs as tears as the meandering narrative reaches its inevitable, heart-rending conclusion.