Longtime Australian actor Richard Roxburgh makes his directorial debut with this adaptation of Raimond Gaita's acclaimed memoir, adapted for the screen by poet Nick Drake and starring Eric Bana, Franka Potente, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Despite their hardships in life, Romulus (Bana) and his beautiful wife, Christina (Potente), struggle to raise their son, Raimond (Smit-McPhee), to the best of their abilities. As the deeply moral Romulus struggles to make up for the absence and neglect of the boy's
depressive mother, father and son build an unbreakable bond that is only strengthened with the passing of time. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
For all that it's well made and expertly acted, the film keeps its audience at arm's length, letting viewers observe without offering an emotional portal of entrance.
Helming bow by Oz thesp Richard Roxburgh predictably leaves actors plenty of room, but the literary tone and episodic structure rob the pic of dramatic momentum.
The picture has a tranquil, gentle nature about it that's almost soothing, while offering examples of familial terror Roxburgh processes superbly...there's much to admire.
It's fitting perhaps that a film based on Rai Gaita's memoirs should play rather like a string of memories; we don't remember the past in a linear story but as patches, chapters, moments, sometimes merely fractions of their entirety.
Very moving, and there just never seems to be a dull moment. This is supposed to be a true story, also, which amazes me. At the end it tells you that the boy in the story grew up and did well in his life. Sheesh. If he can, anyone can because this family (this boy especially) went through one horrible time after
another. Eric Bana did a wonderful job playing the father. I have never paid much attention to him before, but now I have seen a side of his acting that leaves me at awe. Really great movie.
Excellent, magnificent and emotional true story of the author Raimond Gaita's childhood of impossible love that celebrates the unbreakable bond between father and son. Eric Bana makes an astonishing performance as Raimond's father, Romulus, and for Richard Roxburgh in his directing debut.
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