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02/09/06
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Hard Goodbyes: My Father (2003)
85 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 27
Fresh: 23
Rotten:4
Average Rating: 7/10
Consensus: Karayannis handles the lead role well, and the result is a poignant exploration of grief.
Reviews for Hard Goodbyes: My Father
A tender and moving drama that deserves wider exposure.
10/11/05
Top CriticHard Goodbyes could easily have been maudlin, but isn't. Credit an adult script and realistic acting, especially by Giorgos Karayannis as Elias.
09/16/05
Top CriticPanayotopoulou does handle the material with sensitivity, but she relies too much on her young hero's unlikely precocity, which unwittingly diminishes the intensity of a child's very real grief.
09/16/05
Top CriticConsidering the delicate and weighty subject matter, the film's tone is surprisingly light, sometimes even humorous, which helps to balance the harsh sentiments that death inevitably brings.
09/16/05
Top CriticA tender Greek drama documenting a child's disbelief in the face of his father's death.
09/13/05
Top CriticGoes from being appropriately child-like to simply childish.
07/26/05
Panayotopoulou’s story has the ring of autobiographical truth, getting the details of the period and of childhood in general right at every turn.
05/05/05
About nothing so much as a soulful kid's first encounter with the most literal and poetic meanings of the word 'gone.'
04/22/05
A sublimely subjective journey from denial to acceptance as a 10-year-old boy comes to terms with the finality of death.
04/21/05
Begins to take on an allegorical, global feel.
04/12/05
Greek director-writer Penny Panayotopoulou's compelling debut feature is a psychological drama about an Athenian family dealing with grief.
02/23/05
Not perfect, exciting, fresh, but well crafted, well acted, and very well directed
02/09/05
Alternately whimsical and harsh, Hard Goodbyes probably deserves to be seen as a promising first feature, although it lacks the grace and novelty of a similar movie, My Life As a Dog.
02/04/05
Top Critic...has about it the whiff of autobiography, given the specificity of the details and the odd, enchanting drift from an initial tone of social realism toward fantasy.
01/17/05
With soft heartedness and beautiful imagery, the film aptly captures the feeling of disbelief and aversion that hits children in a time of loss.
01/15/05
Youngster Giorgos Karayannis is a marvel in this touching Greek drama about a son's devotion to his father.
01/14/05
It features an endearing, mature performance from its juvenile lead.
11/29/04
Aptly captures the feeling of disbelief and aversion that hits children in a time of loss.
11/26/04
Ultimately doesn't have anything that I haven't seen before in My Life as a Dog or a hundred other movies just like it.
07/23/04
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