Pure (2004)
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Reviews Counted: 23
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 6
This entry in the kitchen-sink realism genre is elevated by its strong performances.
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 0
This entry in the kitchen-sink realism genre is elevated by its strong performances.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 270
Movie Info
A group of young Montrealers seek, in their own limited ways, for the meaning of life, love, sex and friendship. Misha is a street-smart college student who is torn between completing her degree and her party-girl past. During her summer off in the suburbs she meets Josh, a sweet sensitive guy she instantly falls for. Misha brings him along to the city to help her find an apartment, register for classes, and maybe a little more. Josh's quiet, introspective world is shaken when Misha's quirky
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Pure Trailer & Photos
All Critics (31) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (17) | Rotten (6) | DVD (1)
Eden, who holds the film together by his winning presence and doughty performance, effectively conveys the effect of severe challenges that no child should ever have to face.
Although there is nothing really new here, an honest sense of humanity wins out.
Parker and Harry Eden, the boy who plays her precocious-by-necessity son, elevate Pure from a tedious cautionary tale to a wrenching drama.
Molly Parker is an extraordinary actress of the ordinary.
It's a good film that really knows its subject.
Director Gillies MacKinnon (Hideous Kinky) forges a very wrenching and believable bond between Parker and Eden.
derivative ... we've seen better
It is so well-acted that it deserves admiration, but some of its pedestrian plot elements drag it down toward mediocrity.
There are latchkey kids, and then there's Paul, the 10-year-old hero (there's no other word for it) of Gillies MacKinnon's powerful drama Pure.
You kinda wish something, anything good would happen to the kid. Maybe someone could get him some ice cream.
PURE offers a fascinating contrast between acting talent (Molly Parker) and star quality (Kiera Knightley).
In an award-worthy performance, [Eden] possesses the screen with ease and steals the entire film.
Pure is made in the fine old miserabilist tradition of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, but MacKinnon has a rare way with children and a poetic eye for even the drabbest inner-city habitats.
A decent but ultimately unmemorable film.
Though compellingly acted, Pure's spit and polished kitchen-sink realism exudes a disconcertingly cheery affection for the lives of its characters.
Talented performers, effectively dramatic.
First and foremost a family drama rather than a wallow in drug-scare conventions
The conclusion undermines a thoughtful treatment of a serious subject, tilting the enterprise towards triteness and sentimentality.
Kitchen-sink realism with far too much drama going down the drain.
Audience Reviews for Pure
Super Reviewer
Paul's father has died, and his mother is a herione addict. He has a brother and lives in the ghetto part of London. His life sucks, and everybody thinks his mother is a junkie. She is trying to come clean, but she cant when the local drugdealer keeps popping up. So Paul is really struggling to keep his mother clean, and even gets high himself in the process. Things happen to this kid that no kid should have to deal with. It makes you cry for him sometimes.
Now what really interested me was Knightley. She plays the pregnant junkie waitress Louise. She seems to be on the front cover of every poster, but she is a very secondary character. She is very good at her role (well of course, she is a talented actress), and you get to even care about her character as well. You want her to make the right choices and keep her friendship with Paul, because they both help each other in a way. This was Keira Knightley before she was Keira Knightley, it was before Curse of the Black Pearl, and she really shined in the movie to be honest. Her 15 minutes on the screen in all felt much longer and real than that. **Spoiler** I was sad to see her fall into prostitution at the end, and end her friendship with Paul. Her character was not closed very well, and I wish there could have been more. But like I said Louise is a secondary character, for the real characters are Paul and his mom. His mom is so keen to get off heroine that she ends up locking herself in her room (with food/drinks in there) and tells Paul not to open the door for a week. Paul obeys, and he hears things no child should ever hear from a parent. In his frustration from her evil words he hangs out with Louise, and when he comes back he finds that Lenny (the drug dealer) has opened the door and given her her heroine. Lenny is the cause for all sorts of trouble, he got Louise pregant, and wont let Paul's mom get clean.
That is the basic plot of Pure. I am very glad I watched this movie. I am giving this movie a perfect review because A. Its painfully realistic and developed... B. It is very underrated. If this was a big film I might be a bit harder on it. The soundtrack, while stylish in the opening credits, just gets repeated over and over again. It gets very annoying, but that should not stop you for watching this brillaint movie.
Pure--- 10/10
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Foreign Titles
- Pure (2004) (DE)
- Pure (2004) (UK)










Top Critic
[font=Century Gothic][/font]
[font=Century Gothic]"Pure" is an occasionally harrowing tale of addiction with an ending that is simply too pat, told from a child's point of view while at the same time not making the children emotional hostages. Here, drug dealers are portrayed as vampires preying on the weaknesses of others. Overall, the movie only rises above the ordinary due to Molly Parker's emotionally exacting performance.[/font]