While the rambling storyline and extended time-frame betrays the script's novelistic roots, soulful performances from Farrell, Sissy Spacek and newcomer Dallas Roberts make this a rich and emotionally rewarding experience.
A Home at the End of the World (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:109
Fresh:53
Rotten:56
Average Rating:5.7/10
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Bobby and Jonathan have been inseparable since they were teenagers in suburban Ohio. Bobby has suffered many losses for someone so young, and is starved for love and affection. Awkward teen... Bobby and Jonathan have been inseparable since they were teenagers in suburban Ohio. Bobby has suffered many losses for someone so young, and is starved for love and affection. Awkward teen Jonathan has a nice family, and a particularly wonderful mother (Sissy Spacek). The boys not only become as close as brothers, but they also experiment sexually. The two lose touch, but find each other again in their mid-20s in the early 1980s, when Bobby (Colin Farrell) moves to New York and joins Jonathan (Dallas Roberts) at the apartment he shares with Clare (Robin Wright Penn), an aging hippie. Bobby and Clare become lovers, however, Clare had planned to have a child with Jonathan, who is now openly gay and who is still interested in Bobby, and to whom Clare used to be attracted. The trio becomes its own unique entity, questioning the traditional definitions of family and love, and dealing with the complications of their love triangle. Based on the novel of the same name by Michael Cunningham, who also wrote the screenplay and who was the recipient of the Pulitzer prize, this film marks the debut of director Michael Mayer. Erik Smith plays Bobby as a teenager, and Harris Allen plays the teenage Jonathan. [More]
Starring: Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn, Dallas Roberts, Sissy Spacek
Starring: Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn, Dallas Roberts, Sissy Spacek
Director: Michael Mayer
Director: Michael Mayer
Screenwriter: Michael Cunningham
Producer: Tom Hulce, John Hart, Pamela Koffler, Hunt Lowry, Katie Roumel, Jeff Sharp, Christine Vachon, John Wells
Composer: Duncan Sheik
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for A Home at the End of the World
The filmmakers drift into sentimentality too easily and badly shy away from the provocative issues they raise (like sexuality).
The first third of "A Home At The End Of The World" is simply wonderful.
Although the actors do a magnificent job with the piffle, the characters hardly ever act the way real people do in the situations they are presented with. They act, instead, the way characters in a movie act.
Flawed but sincere -- the sort of thoughtful, adult movie that rarely appears in the summer.
A Home at the End of the World can get a tad long, but its beautiful story and spectacular performances allow it that small mute faux pas.
Roberts, Farrell, and Penn don't appear to be in the least bit self-consumed; you really believe they're thinking about each other.
The only thing to look forward to in At Home at the End of the World is The End
Farrell is astonishing in the movie, not least because the character is such a departure from everything he has done before.
Vital nuances are lost, and what's left, despite good intentions and some redeeming qualities, is cloying sentimentality wrenched from dated material.
Compassionate and touching, but less complex and resonant than the book.
It's a delight until the weirdly adult-like child grows up to be a childish adult: Farrell, wearing a caveman wig as a stud version of Chance the Gardener...
Effectively shows how the most important decision you can make is your choice of family.
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