Bell shines as the baleful yet sympathetic Hallam, but there’s little else to get excited about, with the eventual love affair between him and Kate deeply improbable.
Comment
08/31/07
Mister Foe (2008)
72
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:60
Fresh:43
Rotten:17
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Carefully balanced between the dark and the dreamy, Mister Foe is a charged coming-of-age story with whimsy and bite.
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... [More]
Starring: Jamie Bell, Ciaran Hinds, Sophia Myles, Jamie Sives
Director: David Mackenzie
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Reviews for Mister Foe
Another successful and intriguing entry in Mackenzie's growing oeuvre.
10/18/08
You find yourself wishing that what happened in Edinburgh stayed in Edinburgh.
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
As a study of grief, this is silly and nonsensical. Taken less seriously, Mackenzie delivers a light dance over heavy issues, and the romance works – but how flippantly can we take death, grief and suicide?
07/21/07
it's ultimately impossible to rise above the overly melodramatic script. The world doesn't really need another wicked stepmother, after all.
10/28/08
An occasion for David Mackenzie to infuse his smutty purview of modern romantic relations with twee affectation.
06/01/08
Didn't I review this coming-of-age picture back in the spring when it was called Charlie Bartlett?
09/11/08
Jamie Bell 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
Presented as a sort of romantic neo-fairy-tale, the movie rarely acknowledges the inherent creepiness of its premise.
04/28/08
[A] prettily photographed but relationally science-fictional coming-of-age blather.
10/18/08
Top Critic[The film's] intellectualized sexuality stirs neither the head nor the nether regions.
09/05/08
The story itself is self-regarding, and the ending, with its muddled vengefulness, strains both sympathy and credibility.
08/31/07
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.
08/30/08
In his attempt to make the audience sympathize with Hallam, [director] Mackenzie uses the cheapest trick in the book: attempting to give the audience a link into his head with a manic soundtrack.
09/03/08
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
The final installment of Mackenzie's 'sex trilogy' is so strenuously edgy it's tiresome.
10/09/08
It is Jamie’s acting skills, which are even more well honed than his chest, that make Hallam Foe one of the best British movies of the year.
08/31/07
Decidedly dark material handled with a pleasing lightness of touch.
08/31/07
Mister Foe is infused with enough macabre and comical touches to prevent it from sliding into clinical sensationalism.
09/05/08
Top CriticLatest News for Mister Foe
January 08, 2009:
RT Interview: Jamie Bell talks Defiance and Dance
Jamie Bell tap-danced his way into the national consciousness with his breakthrough performance in Billy Elliot nine years ago. Since then he has worked with heavyweight screen... More...
November 02, 2008:
Baret DVD News: 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. 
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September 08, 2008:
Teen Peeping Tom acts upon oedipal urges in dysfunctional family drama from Scotland.
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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...
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