Emile (2005)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Emile benefits from a typically outstanding Ian McKellen performance, but a frustratingly circuitous approach undercuts the effectiveness of a potentially affecting story.
Emile Photos
Movie Info
Cast
as Emile
as Nadia
as Freddy
as Maria/Nadia (age 10)
as Carl
as Tom
as Alice
as Superintendent
as Taxi Driver
Critic Reviews for Emile
All Critics (23) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (10)
A routine memory piece about long-buried family secrets that bubble back to the surface to wreak havoc.
Confusing the profound with the pretentious, director Bessai packs the story with elliptical, ominous flashbacks that undercut all the advances he makes with the contemporary tale.
Tenderly touches our emotions.
Sir Ian McKellen is at his tweediest and most persnickety as the title character in Emile, the portrait of an eminent scientist who returns from England to his homeland, Canada, to receive an honorary degree from the University of Victoria.
It's appropriate that the director calls this the final chapter in a trilogy about struggling with one's identity -- he shows none of his own while mishandling someone else's.
At heart a reverie, a meditation on the past and its treacheries, the ways in which people become flawed, and the eternal though often elusive possibility of forgiveness and redemption.
Audience Reviews for Emile
This movie has good and bad. First, it drags. Emile, the main character is flashing back throughout the movie - I think sometimes you see him as a young Emile, but sometimes he keeps his current age. It is all confusing. However, if you last beyond the first hour, the story becomes easier to follow and more interesting.
Super Reviewer
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