This Scottish film often pushes for realism, though its stylish tones fall back on whimsy.
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09/26/08
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Mister Foe (2008)
75 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 53
Fresh: 40
Rotten:13
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Consensus: Carefully balanced between the dark and the dreamy, Mister Foe is a charged coming-of-age story with whimsy and bite.
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release: Sep 5, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: MISTER FOE is director David MacKenzie's offbeat film adaptation of Peter Jinks's coming-of-age story centered on the unlikely protagonist of Hallam Foe, excellently portrayed by Jamie Bell (BILLY ELLIOT). A troubled young man beset... [More]
Starring: Jamie Bell, Ciaran Hinds, Sophia Myles, Jamie Sives
Director: David Mackenzie
Reviews for Mister Foe
While the film playfully telegraphs its inspirations, Mister Foe never persuasively comes together as a dark fable about an adolescent misfit stuck in loss.
09/19/08
[Director David] Mackenzie has reined in the strangeness to deliver a conventional, if better than average, mystery.
09/18/08
By the end of "Hallam Foe," you've nearly forgotten his all-too-regular boy development. Now you're wondering, what's Kate doing when he's not looking?
09/12/08
Didn't I review this coming-of-age picture back in the spring when it was called Charlie Bartlett?
09/11/08
Jamie Bell in his most memorable outing since Billy Elliot, as a Peeping Tom acting upon Oedipal urges in a dysfunctional family drama from Scotland.
09/06/08
A worthy addition to Holden Caulfield's coming-of-age subgenre of off-kilter teenage boys let loose in big cities. Bell and Myles give terrific performances.
09/05/08
Although it's nice to see Mackenzie find uplift in the erotic, what helps drive Mister Foe is how deftly he turns chasm into intimacy between Bell and Myles, both of whom give sharply observed, charismatic portrayals.
09/05/08
Top Critic Jamie Bell gives a watchable performance in this self-conscious, coming-of-age drama, though the film's overall effect is best described as David Lynch lite.
09/05/08
Top Critic Jamie Bell has his best role since Billy Elliot in Mister Foe, a darkly comic tale of a twisted teen on the cusp of adulthood.
09/05/08
Top Critic Director David Mackenzie's complex story is never sure exactly what tone to strike.
09/05/08
You find yourself wishing that what happened in Edinburgh stayed in Edinburgh.
09/05/08
Top Critic [The film's] intellectualized sexuality stirs neither the head nor the nether regions.
09/05/08
Mister Foe is infused with enough macabre and comical touches to prevent it from sliding into clinical sensationalism.
09/05/08
Top Critic There's a chance that Bell's strong work could turn this into a cult item.
09/05/08
Boring, meandering, and painfully self-important, "Mister Foe" is writer/director David Mackenzie's follow-up to his much better effort "Young Adam" (2003).
09/04/08
An engrossing, provocative drama, the feature sniffs out just the right level of lurid behavior to keep the viewer in concert with the mounting domestic woes. It's a feature of unpredicted, and quite thrilling, discomfort.
09/04/08
It's a showy part, but the movie ably supports it with splendid use of Edinburgh, Scotland's cityscapes, a basket full of startling surprises in the screenplay and characters without a fleck of sentimentality.
09/03/08
Top Critic What makes Mister Foe such unlikely fun is Bell's accomplished smart-ass routine and Mackenzie's blithe attitude toward taboos.
09/03/08
Top CriticLatest News for Mister Foe
September 08, 2008:
Teen Peeping Tom acts upon oedipal urges in dysfunctional family drama from Scotland. 
More...
September 03, 2008:
A movie about a Scottish Peeping Tom who is sufficiently demented to give even Peeping Toms a bad name, it seems to be a lot less about fetish and voyeurism, than warped emotional espionage as pathological mommy love.
More...
August 30, 2008:
A movie about a Scottish Peeping Tom who is sufficiently demented to give even Peeping Toms a bad name, it seems to be a lot less about fetish and voyeurism, than warped emotional espionage as pathological mommy love.
More...
July 01, 2008:
Edinburgh 2008: What to Watch
We share twenty of the best films screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, currently running in the Scottish city. More...
Related Forums for Mister Foe
An Exciting Coming-Of-Age Tale Willing To See Its Hero As Somebody Normal
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