Ok, yes, I admit it and anyone who knows me can guess that what first attracted me to this movie was........ Clive Owen. However, I was impressed to see that this was a serious film and actually sounded very good from initial feedback. Clive Owen departs from more banal roles in recent thrillers such as The International or Duplicity to play a grieving widow and father of two. His intensity and naturalness are earning him lots of praise and talk of a first Oscar nomination.
Owen's character loses his wife to cancer very early on in the film and is faced with the task of raising their particularly rambunctious child on his own. To add to this, another son from his previous marriage comes from the UK to Australia to live with him and the boy.
Clive inhabits his role with ease, playing an understanding and tolerant father who lets his boys engage in unconventional activities (presumably to make up for their lack of a mother) but who can also become suddenly impatient and irritable under stress, taking some questionable decisions.
There are lots of sympathetic father/son scenes as well as endearing moments between the two half brothers. However it pains me to write that the movie failed to truly grip me or Fabio and merely coasts along, like a beautiful Australian landscape. An enjoyable film- touching but not moving, nice but not memorable.
My rating: 7/10
Fabio: 6/10
Total Score: 13/20
a great performance by Clive (the sexiest and most "classy" guy on earth according to my fiancee) and the teen's character, but a too high and unnecessary pathos during the first 15 minutes make this movie very boring and "flat" for the next 90, leaving us expecting something that never comes (for instance, Clive shmashed by a truck :) )
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