Laikals
The greatest movie ever made..!
Jeanskynebu
the audience applauded
Rosie Searle
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Phillipa
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
adamdalton-60317
Excellent Film Plus Where It Was Filmed I Used To Live In East London and In Certain Scenes I Recognised Area's Especially Queens Road Market and Manor Road With The Double Decker Bus Scene. Also Interesting Seeing Masood From Eastenders In It
Boba_Fett1138
This is a rather cheap movie and I don't mean cheap in terms of its budget (well, perhaps also a bit) but more in terms of its story and clichés. Seriously, this movie fairly much progresses just as you would expect it to and it just doesn't really have any surprises in it.Yet it picks in original approach, by telling the story from the viewpoint of an 10 year old boy, who's mother is an heroin addict. So you see the usual story from an unusual viewpoint. It adds some originality and effectiveness to the story but yet overall the movie remains mostly shallow, which is not due to the acting or overall written but more to the directing.The movie really isn't always flowing well and it also isn't helped much by its horrible musical score. The way the story is being told is weak at times and the movie too often chooses fast cuts and scenes often end too abruptly. The movie at points often leaves an unsatisfying impression because of this, though the movie its intentions are all good. Because of the storytelling I felt a certain distance to the story and character and wasn't overall grabbed by it. The movie because of this also doesn't work out as realistic as it potentially could had. Despite the actor's efforts most characters remain mainly stereotypical ones. No, I can't say Gillies MacKinnon is my favorite director, even though this movie is the only one I have seen by him. The movie is just not the most effective or powerful one within its genre.All of the actors are basically doing a good job but they don't really make the movie, or their characters more interesting than they are. Harry Eden is praised to heaven for his performance and it is a good role for an 12 year old but no people he really isn't that great. In some of the sequences (especially the emotional ones) his acting is simply lacking and I couldn't ever feel any of the pain or anger his character went trough, which again, might also be rather due to the movie its directing approach than anything else really. The movie also stars David Wenham and Keira Knightley before their days of fame. I like Keira Knightley and all but you can actually wonder what she is doing here in this movie. Her role on paper might seem like a relevant one but in the movie it works out as a redundant one, whose plot line is distracting from the one the movie is really all about.I don't mean to sound too harsh about this movie, since its definitely a watchable one. It's just that it's also currently being overrated and overpraised on here, for something that it just really isn't.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
noBODee
One thing that stands out like a sore thumb on the previous comment is that David Wenham plays a drug dealer, he's easy on the eyes but a not so nice a fella. The son brings out all my maternal instincts, he does such a fantastic job of playing this tortured child that he makes me want to slap his mother silly. What a future this young man will have as an actor. Keira Knightly is really great but I want to slap her too. Alas this is reality in the real world, addictions can take over all senses, and destroy all in it's path. This really is a compelling movie and I tried to stop watching but just could not. It makes me wonder what the writer has gone thru to create such a sad story.
ollie501
PURE - 2002 (Dir Gillies MacKinnon)Reviewed By Ollie - Jan 2004CONTAINS SPOILERS
Those who have seen the remarkable of performance of Harry Eden in `Real Men' will doubtless be familiar with his capable handling of powerful roles. `Pure' is British drama, set around a London based single mother and her two sons, Lee and Paul (as played by Eden). A promising start to the film shows young Paul preparing drugs for his heroin addicted mother, and handing her the syringe. A desolate look appears on his face as his mother confesses to having forgotten his birthday.Billed as a gritty and powerful drama, this movie is good, but hardly outstanding. Eden's performance is superb, given the material he has to work with. For the best part of the film young Paul looks for all the world as though he is hardened to the situation in which he lives. There is a empty, tired and vacant gaze behind his eyes, reflecting the impact of living with a drug addicted parent.The film is not without gentle touches of humour. The scene in which Mel (played adeptly by Molly Parker) hands over the child, Rose, to the doctor on the bus, is both sad, and gently amusing, as Paul glances back to the doctor warning him `don't give her pepperoni - it gives her the shits'.From here the film delves into the world of heroin abuse, with detox scenes and the inevitable problems that arise from them. Unfortunately this is where the film is ultimately badly let down.The film is good, but that's as far as it goes. It could have been so much better, and barely warrants its 18 certification. Harry Eden is an outstanding actor, and this film could have been such an opportunity to explore his vast potential. Sadly though, this role is a little like giving Michael Schumacher a Mini - you just know that Harry could have done so much with the part, given the chance. He is denied the opportunity to portray any real emotion - it is only in the last 15 minutes in which we see this world weary ten year old cry. Whether this is intentional is difficult to say, as the direction of the film doesn't have quite the impact to allow any true sense of desperation.The detoxification is reasonably well handled, but is not shown with the impact that it would genuinely have. Overall, the main problem is that the film is too likeable, and nowhere near uncompromising enough given the subject matter. Paul's introduction to heroin, to `feel what his mother feels', seems to have been put in for shock value, and is unconvincing and unrealistic, and using it as his mothers inspiration for kicking her habit is clichéd, nearly as much as the family suggesting `pie and eels' for a celebration meal is a jaded and stereotyped image of `the real cockney'.For all its faults though, `Pure' is a decent enough film, with characters you can warm to, and is generally a very likeable film. Sadly it is this likeability that detracts from the seriousness of the subject matter, and one cannot help but feel that Harry Eden is not given enough room to allow his character to develop. This means that the viewers are robbed of the opportunity to see this young actors remarkable talent at its full potential. A well earned 7.5/10 for this well meaning, but sugar coated movie, which could have been so much more...Ollie