John Crowley’s coming-of-age black comedy rides on the talents of Michael Caine as Clarence, a senile retired magician who takes up residence in an English seaside nursing home run by a married couple with a son, Edward (Son of Rambow’s Bill Milner), who is fascinated by the death that surrounds him. Caine, now 76, gives the rueful, curmudgeonly Clarence a depth that the film only occasionally lives up to. Milner, who conveys his young character’s quizzical nature — he yearns to find out what happens after one dies — with impressive ease, works wonders when paired with the veteran actor, gazing at the man’s beleaguered head and world-weary demeanor with the same sense of wonder that audiences will conjure when thinking of Caine’s enduring, diverse cinematic presence. Grade: B-
This article appears in May 20-26, 2009.