In 1963, director Michael Apted and then-partner Paul Almond chronicled the lives of 14 seven-year-olds for British television; they returned to the same group at intervals of seven years for updates, of which this is the fifth. It's possible to watch this film without having seen the other chapters (28 Up and 42 Up are the only other installments in circulation), because Apted offers thumbnail flashbacks with each interview. Several of the original subjects declined to be filmed for 35 Up (the
film acknowledges them with reference to their most recent appearance in the series), and several others express ambivalence about participating. Two trios of friends from the original film -- John, Andrew, and Charles, and Jackie, Lynn, and Sue -- are interviewed collectively; the women seem to be still close, but it's not clear if the men are. Most of the subjects are married and raising children (and most have moved from London to the suburbs or the country); there are a few divorces, and one woman has chosen to be a single parent. The film saves its most fascinating figure, Neil, for last. In 28 Up, he was a university dropout, living a nomadic existence on the coast of Scotland. In the present film, he has moved to the Shetland Islands, where he's involved in local theater and taking medications for his psychological illness. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi
Part of Apted's seminal series that began with 7Up, this segment has different dynamics, emphasizing the children of the subjects and the deaths of their parents, showing stronmg evidence of the life cycle.
Most people will feel the start of tears at unpredictable points in this movie. They come from compassion and sympathy in the truest sense of those words -- we identify with these people living their lives as best as they can.
We see one of the "kids" come back that had chosen not to participate in the last installment and two more drop out without a word. So we have lost three total at this point.It's a weird thing to see these films one right after the other as the idea that so much time has passed for these people is hard to wrap my mind
around. It's easy to be lost in the thought that these are not real people but characters in a movie. They are just really good at casting young people that look like the older people.The fact that we get to see the span of these lives is something rare in cinema and I don't think people should miss out on this. Ask yourself some of the questions they get asked and see if you are not any different from some of them.Another thing we get a look at are the marriages. In the last installment we saw most of them married and some even having kids. In this one we get to see if the marriages survived. Some did... some didn't.The year is 1990 and we are soon going to be in a very modern setting and I still am wondering where the folks will be as the tech and society takes the big leap that is coming soon.
May 12, 2009
Jason Spencer
Super Reviewer
Up Series - GENERAL REVIEWGREAT, GREAT, GREAT series to watch these movies...started watching them all in order in 2007...(by coincidence one of the subjects ends up living in Madison, WI!)So very interesting to watch this non-statistically-relevant social experiment unfold...Reality TV before there was Reality TV...We
see a little of ourselves in each on of the characters and family...A masterful editing of subject matter, to get the audience to CARE about each of the subjects and APPRECIATE things from their lives...Ebert puts this series in his all-time top 10 or even top 5 lists...I agree...A must-watch for anyone over the age of 25...
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