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Movies / On DVD / Fugitive Pieces
Fugitive Pieces

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Fugitive Pieces (2008)

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Reviews Counted: 67

Fresh: 44

Rotten:23

Average Rating: 6.1/10

Consensus: Though the retelling is a bit too subtle, the moving story and solid performances lift Fugitive Pieces beyond standard holocaust tales.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for some sexuality.

Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:May 2, 2008 Limited

Box Office: $449,048

Synopsis: Adapted from Anne Michael's acclaimed prose-poem novel, FUGITIVE PIECES is a harrowing and haunting tale of Holocaust survival and personal awakening. The film opens in Poland, as young Jakob Berr... Adapted from Anne Michael's acclaimed prose-poem novel, FUGITIVE PIECES is a harrowing and haunting tale of Holocaust survival and personal awakening. The film opens in Poland, as young Jakob Berr (Robbie Kay) is hidden away just before German soldiers storm into his Jewish family's home. After watching his parents murdered and his sister dragged away to an uncertain fate, Jakob flees and hides in the woods. He is discovered by a kindly Greek archaeologist, Athos (Rade Sherbedgia), who smuggles the sickly Jakob back to his own island home and hides him for the rest of the war. Years later, having moved to Canada, the grownup Jakob (Stephen Dillane) has become a writer struggling to articulate his childhood horrors, haunted by the mystery of his sister's fate. But after his troubled emotions lead to the breakup of his marriage to the free-spirited Alex (Rosamund Pike), Jakob must exorcise the ghosts of his past if he is to close a traumatic chapter of his life and find beauty in the present. Director Jeremy Podeswa (THE FIVE SENSES) ably shifts between the different stages of Jakob's life, showing how grief can continue to influence one's actions--or inaction--in the years that follow a tragedy. Handsomely shot and thoughtfully acted, FUGITIVE PIECES is a touching testimony to the power of remembrance and redemption. [More]

Starring: Stephen Dillane, Rade Sherbedgia, Rosamund Pike, Ayelet Zurer

Starring: Stephen Dillane, Rade Sherbedgia, Rosamund Pike, Ayelet Zurer, Robbie Kay, Ed Stoppard, Rachelle Lefevre, Nina Dobrev

Director: Jeremy Podeswa

Director: Jeremy Podeswa
Screenwriter: Jeremy Podeswa
Producer: Robert Lantos
Composer: Nikos Kypourgos
Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films

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Release:

Oct 14, 2008

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Reviews for Fugitive Pieces

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Podeswa's confusing, commonplace film lumbers along with a painful sincerity.

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
06/02/09
Philip French
Observer [UK]

Plays out with such daunting high-mindedness it makes The Reader look like Transformers.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
05/29/09
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph

Fugitive Pieces reduces the Holocaust and its aftermath to a cosy soap opera.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
05/29/09
Charlotte O'Sullivan
This is London

One of the most delicate, approachable and rewarding Holocaust movies of recent years.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
05/29/09
Wally Hammond
Time Out

Given the source novel, Podeswa's attempt to adapt Fugitive Pieces is admirable in itself. Yet despite an enthusiastic cast, this fails to transport you in the same way. Tying itself in narrative knots, the end result is stilted.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
05/29/09
James Mottram
Channel 4 Film

The movie has little dramatic momentum, and its journey is essentially Jakob’s incremental acceptance of his fate. But Dillane and the writer-director Jeremy Podeswa create such a compelling central character that it hardly matters.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
05/29/09
Kevin Maher
Times [UK]

His journey towards peace of mind involves lots of lyrical philosophising, which presumably comes straight from the film’s source novel, by Anne Michaels, and doesn’t lend itself to dramatisation, despite Dillane’s typically intelligent performance.

Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK) | comment Comment
05/29/09
Edward Porter
Sunday Times (UK)

Anne Michael's complex, poetic novel is here adapted into a stolid, somewhat po-faced film, but one that still manages to tease some affecting drama out of its scholarly premise.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
05/29/09
Andrew Pulver
Guardian [UK]

Despite a rich premise, the soul-searching of the older Jakob is, at best, curiously colourless; at worst, positively grating.

Full Review Source: Little White Lies | comment Comment
05/29/09
Sophie Ivan
Little White Lies

An intermittently powerful, if not entirely successful, piece.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
05/29/09
Chris Prince
Sky Movies

But while there’s life, there’s hope, and Jeremy Podeswa’s delicate, deliberate adaptation of Anne Michaels’ novel follows Jakob’s heartrending progress from the darkness to the light.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
05/29/09
Matt Glasby
Total Film

There are fleeting moments of poignancy and poetry, significantly when the script features narration taken almost directly from the novel, but this is clunkily written and poorly edited.

Full Review Source: Financial Times | comment Comment
05/29/09
Karl French
Financial Times

Jeremy Podeswa's tremulous adaptation of Anne Michaels's novel aches with earnest intent and tasteful eroticism, yet it moves as heavily and lugubriously as a prison gate.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
05/29/09
Anthony Quinn
Independent

Restrained, worthy and dull.

Full Review Source: Daily Express | comment Comment
05/29/09
Allan Hunter
Daily Express

Engaging, well acted and ultimately moving drama.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
05/28/09
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

mia ap' tis pio entimes, katharies ki eilikrineis synaisthimatikes istories poy mporeis na petyheis sto pani, i opoia an hanei kapoy, einai sti dynatotita tis na sikosei to baros ton filodoksion tis

Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | comment Comment
05/14/09
Joseph Proimakis
Movies for the Masses

take a dip into this thoughtful and intimate portrait of a man slowly warming to the beauty of life as he shakes off the ghosts of a family lost in the Holocaust.

Full Review Source: Screenwize | comment Comment
04/04/09
Simon Weaving
Screenwize

A sentimental journey through inheriting loneliness and sadness from fathers to sons, and their female fantasies, relieved by beautiful language and cinematography.

Full Review Source: Film-Forward.com | comment Comment
12/07/08
Nora Lee Mandel
Film-Forward.com

This is a film whose mood lingers.

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
12/01/08
Louise Keller
Urban Cinefile

Though the strong performances from the brooding Dillane and the ever-good Serbedzija keep things from getting dull, the film does meander its way to a final act that simply peters out.

Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | comment Comment
12/01/08
Jim Schembri
The Age (Australia)
 
 
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Latest News for Fugitive Pieces

April 22, 2008: Based on the acclaimed 1996 novel of the same title, Jeremy Podeswa's heartfelt drama is a personal work that also draws on his family's Holocaust experience. Opens in new window
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March 25, 2008: Trailer & Poster review Opens in new window
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