Reviews

Quite simply, perfect. It is a far better and more complete cut than the original release - which restores Jacques Perrin's towering but understated performance from a small walk on part to the major role it always was. It also reinstates a crucially key scene which was deleted from the original and is fundamental to the completion of this much darker version. I cried in this version even more .... The effortless control of crowd scenes both inside and out make it hard to believe a crew is ever present. The young and old Toto are particularly impressive along with the ever reliable Philippe Noiret, and Morricone's score is quite wonderful. There's a big difference between overwrought sentimentality Hollywood style and sentiment which in this case is really pathos.

My apologies in advance to all you Wes Anderson Junkies out there - but this really is not at all funny or engaging in any way. It falls horribly between being played for laughs and being straight and satisfies neither genre. I normally love everyone in the cast but they all seemed awkward, ill at ease and very very unfunny. The pirate section is particularly odd - is this section supposed to be cartoon and O.T.T. - or is the reality of desperate and particularly unpleasant mercenaries to uncomfortable to deal with properly? This really is an extraordinarily uneven and patchy movie - or have I seen an unfinished rough cut - because I cannot believe the reviews I've seen ....

Undoubtedly still Lasse Hallstroms best film. A terrifically funny and very moving account of the pleasures and pitfalls of growing up. I don't think any other film maker has quite captured the brilliance and innocence of childhood in the way this film does. A fantastic achievement which will stand the test of time very well. Beautifully paced, unsentimental and highly evocative it delivers on every level. This is an example of fine European film making - the like of which is a million miles from the approach that Hollywood would make to the same subject.

This is one of the only films which has truly transported me to a different world and a different time. When I first saw this at the ICA in London many years ago I was so absorbed in the film that when someone coughed near me about 2 hours into the film, I was so shocked out of my complete absorption into the film that I didn't realize I was actually in a cinema. It took seconds to realize that I wasn't in that village in that time and in that place. An unsettling experience which I don't think has ever been repeated. It is a wonderful film, fully deserving of the awards it collected.