Mister Foe is infused with enough macabre and comical touches to prevent it from sliding into clinical sensationalism.
Comment
09/05/08
Mister Foe (2008)
72
%
Tomatometer
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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
Top CriticThere'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
Truly unsettling and uniquely twisted.
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 CriticWhat makes Mister Foe such unlikely fun is Bell's accomplished smart-ass routine and Mackenzie's blithe attitude toward taboos.
09/03/08
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
A striking film but certainly more of one that grows on you rather than one that's immediately compelling.
09/02/08
Mister Foe flirts too often with the unlikely and the foolish, yet there is something to admire in the nerve of its reckless characters, so uneasy in their skins.
09/02/08
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
Equal parts sweet and perverse, this Scottish film is unpredictable in places where it might be twee, and subversively fanciful in others where it might be punishing.
08/22/08
An insightful, well-acted serio-comic look into the mind of a creepy 18-year-old Scot.
07/30/08
An occasion for David Mackenzie to infuse his smutty purview of modern romantic relations with twee affectation.
06/01/08
It's a modestly effective story, even a little moving in a weird way, and worth watching for Bell's intriguing and sympathetic performance.
05/20/08
Presented as a sort of romantic neo-fairy-tale, the movie rarely acknowledges the inherent creepiness of its premise.
04/28/08
A dark, often funny Oedipal and erotic tale from Young Adam director David Mackenzie, Mister Foe benefits from the emotionally and physically agile performance of Bell.
04/11/08
The Hitchcockian elements are actually much subtler than recognized, partly because the film is generally more a comedy than some Peeping Tom-esque thriller.
04/09/08
Hallam Foe cannot be accused of concealing its investment in the dramatic heightening of sensation, the privileging of psychic logic and hormonal pulls over safer and more quotidian forms of "realistic" storytelling.
10/10/07
Rarely have I seen a film end so satisfactorily and without feeling cheated by a conclusion ready made for first dates.
09/08/07
Latest 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. 
More...
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...
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