‘Is Anybody There’

Michael Caine says he considers his performance in "Is Anybody There?" one of his best.

I have two responses:

1) He ought to know, and 2) He's right.

After all, Caine's a two-time Oscar-winner ... and probably should have a few more golden guys on his bookshelf by now. (See this week's "Deja View" for the proof.)

And while he used to be an unrepentant workaholic (remember when he couldn't accept his Oscar for "Hannah and Her Sisters" because he was in the Bahamas shooting "Jaws: The Revenge"?), in recent years he's been much more selective about his scripts. And it shows.

Not that "Is Anybody There?" is an unqualified triumph.

It's a little movie, to be sure, with a script that occasionally gives in to its most sentimental impulses. (At least it earns them, which is more than you can say about most heart-tuggers these days.)

And while Caine undoubtedly dominates the proceedings, his performance doesn't dwarf the rest of the movie -- or feel like a show-offy star turn.

Instead, "Is Anybody There?" provides another opportunity to savor another colorful portrait in Caine's ever-increasing gallery of memorable characters.

Happily, he's not the only memorable character around.

That's because "Is Anybody There?" serves up a variation on that time-honored favorite, the odd-couple comedy.

And before we meet the curmudgeonly cuss Caine plays, we encounter the odd couple's other half: 10-year-old Edward ("Son of Rambow's" endearing Bill Milner).

It's sometime in the '80s, and we're somewhere in an English seaside town.

To shore up the family's shaky finances, Edward's hard-working mum (a harried, yet tender, Anne-Marie Duff) and feckless dad (David Morrissey, all mock macho posturing) have transformed their residence into a retirement home, which means Edward's had to give up his own room to a succession of elderly lodgers.

Understandably, Edward resents the way they've taken over the family home -- and his mother's focus. (We don't, in part because they're played by such grand old thespians as Rosemary Harris, Sylvia Syms, Peter Vaughan and the late Elizabeth Spriggs.)

Given their advanced ages, however, some of them aren't around very long, allowing Edward to indulge his avid (and more than slightly morbid) interest in death, ghosts -- and what happens to people as they cross from this world to the next.

Not the typical hobby for a 10-year-old, to be sure. Which may help to explain why Edward has no friends -- of his own age, or any other.

That is, until the fateful day Clarence (Caine) drives up in a fancifully painted RV, grumbling about yet another humiliating milestone on the road to ruin.

His life wasn't always like this, of course.

Clarence was once "The Amazing Clarence," a magician whose feats of prestidigitation were made even more marvelous by the presence of his late wife, Annie.

Like Edward, Clarence has no interest in hanging about with a bunch of prattling old geezers.

Also like Edward, Clarence is stranded at a crossroads in life.

Edward can't help growing up. Clarence can't help growing old. Yet neither one seems capable of making the inevitable transition -- without the other's help.

Screenwriter Peter Harness (who reportedly drew on his own experiences growing up in a retirement home) throws in a few secondary conflicts to add a bit of variety, from the elderly residents' antics to Edward's father's unrequited lust for a comely, and oblivious, co-worker (Linzey Cocker).

But director John Crowley ("Boy A"), a Tony nominee for Broadway's "The Pillowman," isn't afraid to keep the movie's focus where it belongs: on Edward and Clarence's growing attachment, and the ways in which it enriches their lives.

Mercifully avoiding cute-kid mannerisms, Milner brings a poignant yearning -- and more than a bit of humor -- to his role as the precocious, endlessly curious Edward.

Caine also captures a sense of wistful longing, made all the more powerful because it's buried beneath layers of brusque bluster.

Clarence may be a magician, but he can't fool himself; eventually, everybody runs out of tricks.

Lucky for us, then, that Caine needs no tricks to bring Clarence to life, balancing rueful humor, anger and regret with the effortless ease of a master conjurer.

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.